I led Kishinuma out of the school building and we walked down to the street. I texted Sayaka, asking her to let me know if she got to her recording session safely. I didn't understand why she was so opposed to walking there with Inumaru, but if she was going alone she might as well have someone keeping track of her.

Realizing that Kishinuma had no interest in starting the conversation, I started asking things that came to mind. "What made you transfer here? Did your family move for work?"

Kishinuma shook his head. "I had some… difficulties at my last school. I actually just moved to this town yesterday to go to school here."

I barely suppressed a sigh. His hesitation to talk about what caused him to leave his old school was not encouraging. I'd bet he got expelled and couldn't find a decent job without a high school diploma and decided to enroll somewhere else. He did look like a delinquent. If he spent half as much time studying as he spent on his bleach-white hair he probably wouldn't have gotten into any trouble.

"So you're still settling in, then?" I asked to fill the silence. Of course he was. He got here just yesterday. But I didn't want to just walk in silence with some transfer student I barely knew.

Kishinuma nodded. "Yeah. I'll need to unpack my things when I get home. Then I'll probably need to find a job to pay the rent for my apartment before I run out of money."

I looked over at him. I suppose I could have assumed he wasn't living with his family, but I would have thought they'd offer to help with the rent. "Are you living alone? Is your family not helping you pay rent?"

He snorted. "My parents aren't exactly proud of me. They probably wouldn't miss me if I fell into a gutter. And my younger sister isn't going to be paying for me anytime soon."

I rapidly realized that my assumption that Kishinuma was a delinquent was being proved accurate. It was a small miracle that he got back into school at all, with tuition prices these days. Part of me wanted to just turn off, tell Kishinuma my place was in a different direction, and part ways. I sighed as I realized I couldn't be that cold to a transfer student I'd offered to keep out of trouble, even if I had been sarcastic when I said it.

"I could give you a part-time job, actually." I watched Kishinuma's face as I told him, waiting for the reaction. He seemed a little surprised.

"Does your family run a business or something?"

I shook my head. "Personally, I'm a novelist and medium. My mentor is a novelist as well. I had something else in mind."

Kishinuma's eyes widened a bit when he heard my profession and he looked away. "Such as?…"

"You'll probably notice really soon that I don't actually attend classes often." I paused to wait for his reaction and got a confused glance. "My work keeps me busy, so the school lets me do most of my work from home. At midterms and the end of a term I'll turn in my work to be graded."

Kishinuma scratched his head. "So what does this have to do with a job?…"

"The school lets me do the work, but it doesn't provide me with lecture notes from the teachers. I'd be willing to pay you to take notes for me during classes and bring them to me so I can use that when I finish the work."

"Uh… is that legal?" Kishinuma rubbed the back of his neck.

"I don't believe there's any law against a student giving someone who's essentially homeschooled notes from a class lecture." Seeing Kishinuma wasn't very convinced, I continued justifying the arrangement. "You're going to be in classes anyway, so you can just make a copy of your own notes and give them to me at the end of each week. As a bestselling novelist, I'll be able to offer a reasonable price."

I was taking a bit of a risk by assuming Kishinuma would actually attend classes, with what I knew of him so far. But if he agreed, maybe my little "job" could help keep him in school and out of trouble. I looked straight ahead while Kishinuma pondered.

"Alright, I'll do it." He sighed. "You might want to adjust your offer once you see what my notes look like, though."

"Anything would help, really." I lied. I could easily just look up the information online, as I'd done last year. "We'll settle on a price once you provide the notes if you're worried about quality."

Kishinuma nodded. We both walked in silence for a bit after that. After a few minutes Kishinuma noted that his place was down a different street and we parted ways. I sighed as he left. It was starting to hit me that I'd be seeing more of Kishinuma if he was bringing me notes. I hoped I wouldn't regret reaching out to him.

I tried to put Kishinuma out of my mind as I opened the door to my home and walked in. "Kibiki! I'm back from school!"

I sighed deeply as Taguchi peeked around a corner. "Hey, Naho! Mr. Kibiki's out asking about something that came up earlier. He told me to watch the place until you got back."

Trying not to snap in annoyance, I took a breath and looked over at Taguchi. "Well, I'm back. Why don't you go slack off somewhere else for a bit?"

Taguchi nodded and disappeared behind the corner again. After a moment he came back with a bag slung over his back. "Later, Naho. Tell Mr. Kibiki I left the tapes he wanted on his bookshelf if he doesn't find them himself."

"I'll be sure to let him know." I opened the front door and motioned for him to leave. "Out you go."

Taguchi nodded to me and walked out. I shut the door behind him and locked it for good measure. Once I was sure he hadn't left something behind and on his way back, I headed to my room and dumped my schoolbag into a dark corner. I started sorting through a pile of book drafts and research notes, but I didn't really feel into doing anything.

After a few more minutes of vainly trying to be productive, I gave up and flopped onto my bed. I realized I was more tired than I thought and closed my eyes to get some rest.

I woke with a start as I heard the doorbell ring. I remembered that I had locked the front door when Taguchi left and that Kibiki might have expected the door to be unlocked and not brought his key. I rolled out of my bed and readjusted my glasses, wishing I hadn't slept with them on. I hurried to the front door and opened it to see Kibiki fumbling for his key.

"Ah, I thought perhaps Taguchi had something to do and you were out for the evening." He smiled at me, forcing me to suppress an embarrassed chuckle.

"Sorry, I fell asleep." I ran a hand through my hair, hoping it didn't look too messy. Hoping to change the subject, I decided to ask about what Taguchi had mentioned. "So, did you find something interesting to investigate?"

Kibiki nodded as he walked in. "I think you'll be interested in this one. Just let me put my things away and put on some tea."

I agreed and closed the door for Kibiki, wiping fatigue from my eyes as I did so. I waited for Kibiki in the sitting room, wondering what he could have been asking around about.

A little bit later Kibiki walked in with two cups of tea, one of which he handed to me. "It's rather cold for spring. I wonder if it's a sign of bad weather or something less natural."

"Probably just bad weather. I'd have sensed anything threatening enough to change the climate." I sipped my tea, glad I had something to do to wake myself up after my nap.

Kibiki nodded and pulled a clump of papers from the fold of his yukata and laid it on the table between us. "Read these."

I pulled the papers closer and started leafing through them. A few of them were newspaper clippings or police reports, but some looked like internet printouts.

"Let's see… 'Boy found in alley with no memories,' 'Disappearances from reportedly haunted apartment building…'"

Kibiki sipped at his tea and nodded at the papers. "Look at the information about the victims."

I looked more closely at the information provided about the victims of the cases and noticed most of them were people who went to or taught at my school. Most of the disappearances occurred at the beginning of the last term, and almost all of the victims were found except for a teacher.

"You think someone has been targetting people from Paulownia Academy?" I looked up at Kibiki for an answer.

"It could be a coincidence." He took a sip of tea. "But I think it's worth investigating."

I nodded slowly. "Yeah… most of the disappearances happened at the start of the last term, so this would be the time for it to start again if the culprit is targeting the school."

"The police haven't come up with any leads on the disappearances. Even the victims who've regained their memories don't know what happened."

I nodded again. "So we might have either a very careful culprit… or a supernatural one. Especially if the culprit can supress the memories of the victims." I frowned, noting a concussion could cause memory loss as well. "Were any of the victims injured? Specifically, any head injuries?"

Kibiki indicated the papers. "I believe it says in one of those that none of the victims had any sign of injury and there was no trace of drugs or other chemicals in them when they were found."

"This is definately not a human culprit, then." I put the notes together into a pile. "I'll need to look into this more. My ability to sense spirits will come in handy if our information is correct."

Kibiki nodded. "I expected you'd think that. I've done everything I can on my own… the rest of this case is in your hands."

The weight of this responsibility started to settle on me after I processed what I had just taken on. "You've read up how to perform an exorcism on someone since last time, right? I'd rather not have to perform one on myself if anything goes wrong."

"I don't think you'll need my assistance there, but I have been studying exorcisms. It's also a plot point in my next book." Kibiki finished off his tea and stood up. "I need to review Taguchi's tapes before I head to sleep for the night. Did he drop them off?"

"Bookshelf." I muttered as I looked through the notes Kibiki had given me again. I heard him walk out of the room. I took a deep breath. I guess my own novel would have to wait for a bit… I had a case to investigate.