Chapter 10 – Investigations

After that witch escaped I completely lost control of myself. After all the missions we'd taken I'd thought we were strong, that we'd be safe! Yet I let everyone down, Black*Star got hurt because he didn't have a weapon to protect him, I should have protected him. All I could do afterwards was cry, I didn't ease Maka's exhaustion from using too much wavelength, or start doing first aid for Black*Star, Mai-san and the victim. Some senpai I am, acting so pathetic while everyone else is working hard. I couldn't even stand on my own, I had to be helped to get up to take Black*Star to the nearest doctor. Why am I so pathetic?

Tsugumi clenched her hands together as they sat in her lap. She sat leaning against Maka's shoulder on a bench in the waiting room of the doctor's office. Tsugumi's eyes burned, the occasional tear running down her cheek. Black*Star had been with the Doctor for well over half an hour now, getting his injuries treated and Tsugumi realised that he'd been hurt far more than she'd originally feared. The office was quite aside from the sound of the clock, Tsugumi didn't feel like talking and Maka had kept her eyes glued to the clock since they sat down.

"There you two are." Clay said as he entered the building, having spotted them the moment he and Akane passed through the doors. Tsugumi turned her head to look at them as they approached, had Akane come to scold her for getting his cousin hurt? "We've been looking for you." Clay was cut off by Akane elbowing him in the stomach. Akane looked at his partner with furrowed brows, Tsugumi was surprised that it was Clay who was suffering his ire.

"Thanks for looking after Black*Star on the ride over." Akane said kneeling down in front of the two girls. At his height he was still looking down to meet their eyes. "We managed to complete the investigation on site, though there's still some forensic work going on. There's just you three left to interview now, did either of you not anything suspicious?"

Maka turned away from the clock and looked at the ground. "Not really, Mai's soul was unresponsive like the traitors we caught before. It did react a little when she tried... to hurt herself though. But she definitely wasn't all there." Akane and Clay looked at each other for a moment and nodded.

"It's suspected that the culprit is a control type witch, so it's likely Mai wasn't in control of her actions. Did you notice anything which may have been used to control her? Like a piece of clothing or has she been hanging around someone suspicious?" Clay said crossing his arms. Tsugumi bit her lip, but a small noise still escaped her throat.

"No, Mai-san's been doing well ever since Sid stepped in and got her name changed back. And Kim being in EAT provisionally meant she hasn't had the time to bully her either." Tsugumi hid her face in her hands as she felt more tears escaping. "Yesterday she was talking about coming to the Bazaar to take advantage of the fact Kim wasn't taking all her money and treat herself, maybe get some jewellery I think. She had a nice new ring, scorpion themed for her horoscope and everything when we found her." Tsugumi was disappointed she couldn't remember much as she hadn't bothered to pay much attention to Mai before now.

"Tsugumi are you sure?" Akane said, getting up to grip her shoulders. Tsugumi looked up from her hands and nodded. Akane looked her in the eyes, his face right in front of her own, she blinked. "Mai didn't have any jewellery on her when we searched her."

"I think she was." Maka said, scratching her head. "I was watching her left arm the entire time. It was the one she'd transformed. I've never seen her wear any jewellery before now that I think about it. I thought it was blood on her pointer finger for a while since it was such a bright red, but I had other things on my mind at the time."

"We'll get people looking for it, maybe it got lost in the commotion." Akane said. He released Tsugumi's shoulders and stood up. "Clay we need to call this in."

"I'm sure we didn't miss it though. If it was the cause it's probably gone, the witch wouldn't have left a clue like that when she could've removed it before help arrived." Clay said, pulling out his mobile from his jacket. "But this is good for us. She was probably masquerading as stall owner nearby. It shouldn't be hard to find out if there was a woman selling jewellery nearby, someone must have seen her before she made the sale to Mai."

Tsugumi stared at Akane as he continued to question Maka. Clay called in for the investigators to search for the ring and potential suspects. She felt bewildered by Akane's thanks for the information, didn't he realise how terribly she'd done? Tsugumi knew Akane didn't miss much and if he was upset he probably wouldn't bother hiding it.

The door to the surgery room creaked open on Tsugumi's left. She twitched, her elbow slamming into Maka's side. Maka's exclamation drew Akane and Clay's attention. "I'm finished the treatment, you can come in now." The doctor said, his face peeking through the crack in the door. He retreated away from the door, disappearing from sight the moment he stopped talking.

Tsugumi pushed herself to her feet and made a beeline for the door. "Black*Star are you ok?" Tsugumi said, only to bump into the back of the Doctor in her haste to assure herself of Black*Star's health. She looked up and gasped at the Doctor, there was a screw in his head. "It's Frankenstein's Monster!" Tsugumi said, pointing a shaking finger at the Doctor.

"Dr. Stein is he alright?" Akane said as he came behind Tsugumi. He wrapped an arm around her shaking shoulders and guided her towards Black*Star. Tsugumi couldn't reasonably be believed to expect that this guy was actually named Stein and looked like that could she? Though it made all the stitching on the walls around the office make more sense. He could just be a fan with a stage name.

"He'll need to take it easy until the end of summer so he doesn't cause permanent injury to his leg but he'll live... unfortunately." Dr. Stein said raising a hand to tighten the screw lodged in his skull. "There are no signs he was exposed to poison or any other method of control and his skull is too thick for him to have a concussion."

Black*Star pouted, his face red and cheeks puffed out, sitting on the surgery table. Tsugumi shushed him before he could open his mouth to reply. She slipped out from under Akane's arm and started to inspect Black*Star, lifting an arm or turning him when necessary. He has covered in bandages in several places where he'd been cut by debris and his bruises were covered in a light coating of ointment. Tsugumi's eyes drifted down to his leg, the hole had been stitched up, in a pattern matching the Doctor and his office, and it had been sprayed with what Tsugumi could only guess was disinfectant. His other leg kicked her in the shin; he raised an eyebrow as she protested. Tsugumi huffed but relented in her search, the message that he was okay and to stop the mother-hen act coming across loud and clear. Tsugumi was at least grateful that he had coming willingly to be treated and been quiet the entire time. He wasn't anywhere near as bad about Doctors as Maka.

"Don't be such a worry wart Akane, a witch like that wasn't anything special." Black*Star said, trying to give his signature full faced grin, stopping with a grimace. Tsugumi would bet he'd pulled at the wound on his forehead when trying to wiggle his eyebrows like usual. Not that she or anyone could take his boast serious, the way the majority of his face was a giant bruise, one eye so puffy and swollen that it was stuck half open.

"True enough." Akane said, sighing as he put his hand on his hip. "You went after someone when you arrived on scene, can you tell us why?"

"I'm not in trouble right? 'Cause that was definitely a witch right?" Black*Star said, narrowing his one good eye. Maka walked up to stand beside him and tried to flick him on the ear with a glare. Black*Star swatted her hand away. "I could hear her talking. I started running over when I heard the screams and all, but there was just this voice saying weird shit nearby. Like how it was easy to possess a NOT and how the dose wasn't enough to fight EAT. Next thing I know she's saying she'll wrap it up, but it would be bad if the subject was caught so she'd see if she could make her kill herself."

Clay frowned and ran his fingers through his hair. "Not good, if this is all just an experiment there's got to be something bigger coming." Tsugumi felt her whole body shiver at the thought; she didn't want even more trouble being brought upon Death City. "Did you manage to get a good look at the suspect?"

"Did she look anything like this?" Akane said, pulling a hand drawn mug shot from inside his jacket. Tsugumi found it hard to believe that such a normal girl could be a witch.

"Yeah that's her." Black*Star said. "It's hard to forget since she had these freaky red and purple eyes, it was hard to tell which colour her hair was since it kept changing in the light though." Black*Star crossed his arms. "But it's not like the alley being dark made it hard for me to see or anything."

"Indeed, this ID should be enough for us to add Shaula Gorgon to the list." Akane said, stashing the mug shot back in his jacket. "But don't go chasing after her when she gets added to the board just yet, we still need to figure out where she's hiding." Black*Star looked away. "Black*Star I mean it, not until you recover." Akane said frowning. He grabbed the younger boys chin and forced him to be face to face. "I can and will ask Sid to tie you up whenever you're not in sight."

Black*Star stared back at Akane for a moment before finally agreeing. Tsugumi felt tension she didn't realise was there ease from her shoulders, glad that someone else was putting their foot down with him. Tsugumi wasn't sure she had any right try and stopping him when her main reason was how terrified she was of ever running into that witch again. Black*Star would never accept that, and run off on his own.

Tsugumi Soul Count: 61/99 & 0/1