"But just being a normal student would be boring," He said.

"I should give myself special powers, or something like that," He said.

"Yeah, I'll make myself omnipotent. After all, it's just a fantasy," He said.

Kagami clattered down the dim hallway after the policewoman, still not sure of what to say. The matter was not so simple as 'just tell the truth.' The truth seemed crazy, and unless proof of what she had seen emerged, she risked being sent to a mental hospital.

The policewoman held a plywood door open, and, limping through it, Kamagi discovered a scene worthy of a low budget crime show. Behind a plastic table sat an officer in thick sunglasses shuffling a deck of cards. The room's two decorations were a distractingly large analog clock hanging from the wall, and a brown stain on the floor emanating from the far corner. As if to add to the surrealism, the policewoman locked the door behind them.

It's not as though I could escape if I tried, Kagami thought. Setting down her crutches, she sat across from the officer. Was he looking at her? It was impossible to tell. Eventually, he put his cards down.

"Name?"

"Hiiragi Kagami."

The officer seemed to be staring directly at her. Challengingly, Kagami glared into his abyssal lenses. She wouldn't let this chubby, ridiculous looking man intimidate her. She was going to report exactly what she had seen, and he had better believe it.

"Well?" the officer grunted. He, for his part, had been listening to inconclusive testimony for hours, and was sick of talking to brainless teenagers.

Standing by the door, the policewoman coughed politely. "Why don't you tell us what you know about the fire," she said, with a sidelong glance at the officer.

"Oh, right." Kagami looked down at her knees, no longer sure of whom to address. "Um… last month, a foreign exchange student came to our school from America. His name was—"

"An American!" The officer sat up excitedly. "So he started the fire?"

The policewoman rolled her eyes. "Go on," she prompted.

"His name was Henry. He wasn't in my class, but a few friends and I would always hang out with him at lunch and after school. After he showed up he seemed to… to take control of our group. Somehow, our conversations always seemed to revolve around him. He decided where to go, and what to do.

"Henry also seemed to be good at pretty much everything. He got the highest test scores in the school, fought off older kids that would bother us, won every event at our school's fair… He always made a show of being nice to people. Everybody liked him."

"Get to the point." The officer returned to shuffling his deck. Kagami looked to the policewoman for reassurance, but even she looked a little bored. Embarrassed, she hurriedly continued.

"This afternoon, though, I was visiting my friends' classroom to retrieve a textbook, and I saw Miyuki—I mean, one of my friends spill some water on Henry by accident. After that his face got all contorted… almost like he was pouting, or something. He was usually pretty calm, so I didn't think water would really bother him… and then…"

"And then?"

"His… his eyes glowed, and he looked like a gust of wind was blowing his hair upward… and then the room exploded. My friend… she got a full blast of it, and fell over… a piece of something hit me in the leg… and everyone started screaming. I got out as fast as I could."

The deck of cards spilled onto the floor. The officer gawked for a moment, before breaking into uproarious laughter. The policewoman glared at him until he calmed down, then turned to Kagami.

"Are you certain you're feeling alright?" she said.

"You weren't maybe hit in the head, as well as the leg?" interjected the officer, stifling a chuckle.

"I feel fine," said Kagami. Her face burned, and tears threatened to escape her eyes.

The policewoman looked sympathetically down at her. "It's alright if you don't know anything, dear, but I'm afraid your story doesn't explain the fire. Our investigators believe that it was started in a storage closet, not a classroom."

As it happened, a student had been smoking in this closet when the fleeing mob reached it, at which point he had dropped his lit cigarette on a pile of papers and escaped the building. This information, however, was known to him alone.

"It's true, though," insisted Kagami. She cursed the woman for feeling sorry for her, as a tear dripped down her cheek.

"I think I understand. You were jealous of your friend—"

"If that were true, wouldn't I use a more believable story?" she asked.

The policewoman kneeled until Kagami's bloodshot eyes were level with her own. "I think you should talk to Henry about how you feel. I'm sure he isn't trying to steal your friends from you."

I thought you were on my side, thought Kagami. Out loud, she said "Alright. May I go home?"

"Of course. Do you need a ride?"

"No, thanks."

But Kagami had no plans to go home. I'll show them, she thought, as she hobbled back to the school.