Where should I start this, I wonder?

From the time where the culprit was found and told you what happened next? Or should I start from the time where we found the dead bodies and blood splattered all over the gym's wall? Or… Ah. These things really were confusing.

Sitting on my bed and closing my eyes for a while, now I've made my choice.

Let's begin this story with, "Once, once upon a time, in an all-boys school which has many secret inside its body," then.

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Darkness Within

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Genre: Crime – Mystery

Rate: T

Warning: death charas, lots of shonen ai hints, and grammar mistakes. AU, but not in the same world with 'Their Daily Lives'.

Disclaimer: 07-Ghost still belongs to Yukino Ichihara & Yuki Amemiya. Fairytales mentioned in this fic belong to their respective regions as well.

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Prologue

~Lovely Day~

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When I entered this school for the first time, the cherry blossoms were blooming everywhere. It was a beautiful scenery, honestly. And I, who was thirteen years old only at that time, was entranced by the beauty that I've never seen before. Yes—I've never seen a blooming cherry blossom. My family prohibited me from going outside since I was a child until last month, because I had an illness that made me easily tired even if I was just walking slowly.

And that was the day where I met him for the first time too.

The one who had a beautiful golden blonde hair with long side bangs, clipped with a pair of silver hairclip, and not-so-narrow lime green eyes.

But it wasn't his appearance that attracted me. It was his smile; a wide, bright, and cheerful smile I've never seen before in my family.

Guess I stared at him far too long, until he looked at me and came to me with his hand extended. His smile was still there, plastered on his lip as if it was his default expression. "My name is Landkarte Reuen. Nice to meet you; I suppose you're new to this school too?" His voice wasn't too high, yet not too deep too. Childish? Yes. Very different with me who was raised in a gloomy environment until people always thought that I was two years older than my actual age. Sigh.

"…yes, you're right," I said before shaking his hand. "And mine is Karu. Karu Barsburg."

He blinked twice. "'Barsburg'? Whoa, never thought you're part of them. Your skin is paler than theirs—er, no offense for that." He gulped difficultly when I stared at him coldly. "A-are you angry at me?"

I had to restrain myself from showing him an amused smile.

"I guess if you're willing to treat me a chocolate ice cream, I won't be angry at you."

At first, he looked like he's going to smile widely again. But then, when he realized what I actually intended to do, he pouted—a cute one, by the way. "Hey, that's not fair! You're not serious, are you?"

For the first time in my life—yes, really. I wasn't lying—, I chuckled amusedly in front of public.

With a certain loafer who kept clinging to me after our first meeting, of course.

Yet, who would've thought that something scarier than death was waiting not too far from us that time?

#

"Mirror, mirror on the wall.

Who, in this land,

is the loneliest of them all?*"

I turned my head to look at him with a spoon in my mouth. I was eating my breakfast when he suddenly came from behind, singing his favorite song all the way (I swore I could hear his voice even when he hadn't arrive at the great hall yet), and then sat next to me with messy appearance and dark line under his eyes.

It was on our third year in this school when he started to lose his things and got an insomnia.

I really was worried. And yet, as stoic as I was, I couldn't express it right. "Can't sleep at night again?" I asked him with my usual tone. Even though I resumed to eat again, I was still staring at him from the corner of my eyes. He chuckled lightly with soft pink blushes on his cheeks while taking his foods. "And even until now, I still don't know how in the world you can easily read my mind."

I huffed. "I didn't read your mind easily—you're the one who're easy to be read."

He smirked at me. "Really? You're really good at it, then."

I rolled my eyes this time. "Stop talking and get eating fast, loafer. Our chemistry teacher won't wait patiently for you to eat gracefully today."

Without talking (yet, still with a wide smile plastered on his lip) again, he started to eat. I was about to eat the last spoon of my breakfast when he started to cough. I thought he was just choked on his food, so I offered a glass of water to him. But then, when I saw his unusually pale face from short distance, I realized that something amiss was happened at him recently. His missing belongings, his strange insomnia, and now his pale face…

/…God. Please don't tell me that he's—/

"Is there someone who bullied you?"

After taking a sip from the glass, he just smiled at me and continued eating as if I never asked anything.

And that's enough for me to know what's really happened at him.

I was full of anger, yet I couldn't change the default expression of mine. My hand was holding his tight, far too tight until he winced in pain. I muttered an apology and released his hand immediately. I had to know who're the one who bullied him. I have to find them, confront them, and gave them a lesson so that they'd never make a mess again with my friend. My first comrade—my first best friend I ever had in my life.

But then, when I have gathered enough proofs to report those bully to the Principal, Landkarte suddenly vanished.

Like, without any news or letters.

And then, when I asked where he was to his roommate, he became very pale and scared. Screaming, "I know nothing of this! Nothing! Go get away from me! I don't know what happened to him—I don't know anything!" at me and ran away whenever he saw me was a clue for me that something bad had happened to them.

#

Two years had passed since the last time I saw him. I was on my fifth year here, and only need one more year to graduate so that I could find him when a transferred student suddenly appeared on my class.

Someone who, eerily, had a lots of resemblance with my long lost friend.

Someone who had same golden blonde hair and not-so-narrow green eyes with long eyelashes like girls would have. He was taller than before, and he had cut his left side bangs.

And then, after his former roommate screamed hysterically in fear out of the blue, he just chuckled amusedly at the scene where people hurriedly tried to calm him down. I sensed something strange had occurred to him; something that made him looked far different from two years ago for me.

But at that time, I haven't known it yet.

Not yet, until a dead body was found without its left hand inside the gym several days later.

When I talked to him like our usual conversation before he went away, he smiled casually while taking a sip from his morning tea before replying, "I don't know. I know nothing. He isn't my roommate anymore, anyway. I have nothing to do with him, dear Karu."

"You do."

He tilted his head. "And I wonder what is it?"

I let out a depressed sigh. "If you don't know anything, my dear friend," I paused for a while to take a closer look at his twitching mouth edges, "then how can you repeat exactly the same thing he had told me before, when I asked him where the hell did you go two years ago?"

He laughed out loud; the same laugh like what he had shown me before he gone, but with darker humor than it normally would be. "I don't know. I just want to say that. Funny things happened incidentally, right? And what a poor boy he is; found dead inside a volley ball box without his left hand. He was left-handed, as far as I can remember. The murderer have to be really cruel to take it away from him."

I pinched the bridge of my nose. My head felt dizzy suddenly. It was full of things I couldn't understand. I've tried to forget it, but something inside me not to do it. And I really was confused.

"Do you have some aspirin, Landkarte? I think I need it now. Urgently."

"Worry not. I have a whole day to spend with you, my dear Karu. Nobody will protest if I tell them that I have to nurse you—"

"—don't ever try to give me a mental image where you're dressing up as a nurse, idiot. It'll only make my head felt dizzier."

He smiled innocently. "That's something I want to give you, actually. You read my mind fast."

I let out a deep sigh—again. "And just like what I've told you before, you loafer," I paused again, trying to arrange the word so it wouldn't be ambiguous to be heard, "I know you better than yourself."

/'Not too ambiguous' indeed, Karu,/ I told myself sarcastically while Landkarte just laughed and supported me to the infirmary.

I didn't remember anything after I laid myself on the bed. I did remember that I heard Landkarte vaguely said, "I need to go to the library now. I'll be back soon and don't be naughty, Karu," before I passed out, though. He was there with a book on his lap, sleeping peacefully next to me when I woke up. I smiled at the sight; it has been a long time since the last time I saw him sleeping this peaceful. It was all silent and peaceful time, until I saw some juniors gathered in front of the dead cherry blossom tree from the window beside the infirmary bed.

My eyes widened when I realized what was the thing they wanted to see. I could see it clearly from my place; yes, I did.

I could see the hanging hand on the tree's branch—a bloody hand without its body, which I really was sure that it belonged to the dead ex-roommate of my best friend.

Little that I knew. But when I arrived at the scene with my yawning friend, the juniors looked at us as if they're looking at ghosts.

I could just wondered why the hell one of them suddenly ran away from us when I tried to talk to him.

I had a feeling that this thing had a connection with the sleepy teen beside me, back then.

.

.

To be continued.

A/N:

* Kagami © Kanon Wakeshima.

Okaaay. So, this is the first time I write mystery-fic in English. I hope you enjoy it, though I'm sure it's lack of the suspense aura… (_ _)||| Anyway, is there someone who is willing to give me some constructive critics? Because, hell, I really am need it so much! #cries