The Game is Afoot is a saying that is commonly used in reference to whenever an investigation begins or 'heats up' as it were. This investigation is no exception.

18/04/2018 - 7:30 - Shujin Academy - Arisato Minato

Minato was on the hunt, specifically for a certain goody-two-shoes third year. From all accounts, the girl has auburn brown hair with a weird braid that could very well be a hairband, though more importantly, she has striking red eyes like she's an albino.

Though quite a lot of the third years are avoiding him like he's got the plague. Though some of them were wondering what a delinquent was doing around the school hallways, clearly looking for something

That was until, he found what he was looking for, the student council room. he knocked on the door and opened it, not even waiting for a response.

18/04/2018 - 7:35 – Student Council Room - Arisato Minato

When he entered the student council room, the thing that struck him the most was just how stuffy the room was, none of the windows were open and the room was at that kind of warm temperature that goes from wanting to put you to sleep and had reached that level where it became physically uncomfortable. There was a whiteboard in the corner of the room that had various things written down in scrawling handwriting in black marker pen, various stacks of paper littered the desks of the room, either stacks of unbound permission and funding forms or spiral bound requests or something similar.

There was only one person in the room, sitting down at the desk closest to the windows. It was the person who he was looking for, Nijima Makoto.

Just as what he heard, the girl had auburn hair that went down to her chin, combined with a weird braid on her hair that looked kind of like a hairband. Her features were angular and her skin was pale, probably from the amount of time she spends working in this room. Her eyes were focused on a piece of paper that she was holding, clearly reading it intently to the point where she hadn't even noticed him enter the room. Though when it looked at them they were a very striking shade of red, it almost made him think that she was an albino, though the natural shine of the hair convinced him otherwise.

In terms of what she was wearing, it was most likely, though he couldn't see it, she was wearing the Shujin Academy Uniform skirt, though he could be wrong considering who everyone in this school seems to take the uniform policy and throw it out a window and she was no exception to this. She was wearing a typical white dress shirt and instead of wearing the school jumper, she went with a black waistcoat. In addition, it seemed that she was wearing a black wrist brace, no really, she was actually wearing one, he wasn't sure how someone would do that much work that they'd get RSI from it, but he sure that she'd be willing to tell him that that's how you know you're working hard. Her school blazer hung on one of the empty chairs in the room.

After sufficiently analysing her appearance for future reference, he coughed into his fist in order to get her attention, causing her to slightly jump in her chair and put the paper down and look at him.

"Niijima-senpai, I presume?" Minato began, getting himself a seat with his right hand dragging it up to himself, the question was rhetorical, the school forum had a disturbingly large amount of threads dedicated to Makoto's appearance "What if I told you about the reason why Suzui-san was about to try to kill herself."

Makoto raised a single eyebrow at this, apparently intrigued. "Go on..."

18/04/2018 - 7:40 - Student Council Room - Niijima Makoto

Makoto felt the urge to be sick at all the things that Minato had told her, he told her this in the most clinical and apathetic tone that she had heard in her life.

Kamoshida was worse than she thought it would be, beating the entirety of the volleyball team, punishing specific members harshly for minor mistakes and then, well, what he did to Suzui.

She wasn't really sure how to respond to that. Or to the next thing Minato asked.

"Could you please help me in bringing Kamoshida to justice?" He asked, his tone just as emotionless as before.

"What?" She asked she wasn't entirely sure how to respond to that, every instinct was telling her to side with them, but her better judgement said that this wouldn't result in much.

"I wouldn't have told you everything I just told you if I didn't believe that you wanted to improve the school." Minato said, "So, I'll ask again, would you please help me bring Kamoshida to justice?"

"Why not go to the teachers?"

"Really? I'll give you a hint, leaked criminal record, most of the teachers look like they are disgusted with my very existence." That did make sense, most of the teachers were wary of people with a history of violence, she remembered something similar a year or so ago with one of her senpais. Troublesome, really. "You, on the other hand, teachers would trust you." He said, being utterly unashamed that he was going to be using her.

"So, you're using me."

"Yes." Minato said with no dancing around it "But the fact that I am using you says that you're worth using. I can feel it, you're just as sick with this school as I am." he paused for a second, in a motion that looks natural but felt practised "Or was I wrong and are you just going to think that nothing is wrong even as your kohai are suffering." He stood up from his seat. "I'm already late for homeroom, tch. If you want to do the right thing, meet me on the roof at lunchtime."

He walked out of the room, closing the door behind him and leaving her alone in the stuffy student council room.

18/04/2018 - 12:00 - Shujin Academy - Niijima Makoto

Makoto walked up to the roof, ignoring the fact that she was breaking at least several school rules and noting the fact that the door should be locked, but the padlock she remembered putting up last year had been removed.

She opened the door and found herself on the roof, standing around at a corner, at some of the old desks and chairs, there was Sakamoto, both the Arisatos, Suzui and Takamaki. Quite a collection of people.

"Ah, so you do want to do the right thing," Minato said, he turned to Sakamoto, a clearly playful expression on his face "So what was that about the Student Council President not caring?"

"Alright, you were right," Sakamoto said, sounding annoyed

"Damn right I was..." He cleared his throat and his face turned from having a playful expression to a more neutral expression "Anyway, Nijima-senpai, I'm going to assume that this means you accept the offer."

"You are correct," Makoto said, she wasn't all that comfortable in the presence of the school delinquents.

"Excellent." Minako said, taking over for her brother, her expression was a bit more cheerful, but her cheer did feel somewhat out of place "We've tried investigating Kamoshida in order to bring him to justice, but we have hit something of a roadblock. You see, we're kind of conspicuous and no-one really wants to open up to the people who have previously assaulted someone, even if they ask nicely." She said, her tone out of place but definitely a change from her brother's listlessness "That's where you come in, apparently, teachers trust you and are more likely to not take what you're saying with a grain of salt. In other words..."

"We need you to help with our investigation and try to get one of the teachers on our side." Minato finished. His words quick and to the point. She could appreciate that,

"So, you want me, the Student Council President, the one with connections to one of the country's up and coming prosecutors, to help tell the teachers, on another teacher?" Makoto said, making sure that she was hearing this correctly.

"Who said I was done talking?" Minako said, "That is a part of your job, yes, but another part would be to help us gather evidence, you could probably help us get some more confessions out of members of the Volleyball team, or actually talk to the head of the school newspaper who is absolutely terrified of us." Minako explained, at the end, her tone was a bit annoyed and somewhat bitter. "Surprisingly good at hiding that one and we even checked all the person-sized cardboard boxes..."

"She's changed her tactics," Makoto said to herself, Yori, as she was known as had a habit of pulling a solid snake, her changing tactics was ... unsettling. Makoto checked her phone and saw the time. "I must be going, I've got a few things I have to organise with the Student Council," Neither of the twins looked pleased with that, but let her go.

18/04/2018 - 15:30 - Shujin Academy - Suzui Shiho

One thing that felt really weird to Shiho nowadays was actually not attending Volleyball Practice and to be honest, it was kind of hard not to, the practice, no matter how painful it was, became a part of her daily schedule and she had to actively stop herself from not going to practice like she was on autopilot.

They had a clear plan worked out for after school, she'd meet up with Ann at the shoe locker and get to her place, constantly checking to make sure that Kamoshida didn't have a Shujin Student following her.

Shame that no plan really survives contact with the enemy, when she made her way down to the shoe lockers, she heard the voice of Kamoshida "Why are you no longer taking my calls?" He asked an unknown participant of the conversation, Shiho ducked behind the shoe lockers and listened in.

"I thought it was obvious." The voice of ... Ann said, clearly disgusted with Kamoshida "Fuck a gym sock, sex was never part of the agreement." What the hell was she talking about

"Bu-" Kamoshida began

"But nothing, I told it to you thrice, I'm not interested in sex." Ann sighed "In fact, I wanted to drop this subtly, but the entire agreement is off. I'm blocking your number."

What was this about, Ann was dating Kamoshida, why? What was this about an agreement?

"You know what will happen to Suzui-san if you do, right?" Kamoshida said, she could almost hear his predatory grin, this was a man who had decades of experience at manipulating people

"You know that's a bluff, right?" Ann shot back, her voice as hard as steel "It's funny thinking that I would fall for such an obvious bluff." There was the sound of a shoe locker opening.

"Wha-"

"Shut up, sensei," Ann said, putting a sarcastic emphasis on the word 'sensei' "I imagine that you have a volleyball team to 'coach'"

Shiho turned a corner and heard the heavy footfalls of a very pissed off Kamoshida moving past her hiding place. This was so much to process, what did they mean 'agreement', what did it have to do with her, it did explain why Kamoshida stopped beating her as much last year, or at least, tried to make the bruises less visible.

She stepped out from her hiding place and went to replace her school slippers with her shoes, there were a few tears in her eyes, this meant that Ann was straight, all of Shiho's hopes of a bright future alone with the foreign girl went spiralling down the drain.

"Hey Shiho, nice timing," Ann said, her voice like a melody and oh god, Shiho couldn't help it, even if Ann was most likely straight, "Want to head home or stop someplace else?" She asked she was always so nice, Shiho wondered how Ann's lips would feel or if she would oblige Shiho's fantasies,

"Could we stop by that diner, you know the one in Shibuya," Shiho asked, she resisted the urge to look at Ann, those eyes would just make Shiho fall in love all over again.

"Sure, just don't be surprised if the Arisatos jump in, they mentioned that they might have spare time today," Ann said, her voice was somewhat annoyed by that.

18/04/2018 - 16:10 - Diner - Takamaki Ann

If there were three things that Ann was sure of, one would be that she was glad to have officially broken up with Kamoshida, the man was at least fifty (he never said what his actual age was) and he always smelled like cheap deodorant and sweat. That and she was his trophy girlfriend.

Second would be that she had it really bad, even if Ann was sometimes oblivious to her own feelings, she could acknowledge that Shiho was one of the most beautiful people she'd ever met and that Ann was not-biased in that regard at all, she'd also be happier if Minako didn't tease her over her crush.

The third was that Shiho was hiding something, despite her normal misery, the girl seemed to be carrying extra weight on her shoulders, which was just even more fun.

Both the girls had spent some money on some Coffee, Shiho's was black and Ann's was a flat white. They were sitting opposite from each other as they sat in a booth near the exit, Shiho looked like she wanted to talk about something, but was trying to gather the courage to say something.

"Something on your mind?" Ann asked, taking a sip of her coffee.

"What was the conversation with Kamoshida about?" Shiho asked, oh shit, she was actually asking about that. "Why were you in a relationship with him?"

"I..." Ann stumbled, at a loss for words for one of the first few times in her life "I was dating him to protect you." she said finally, there was no point lying about it, Ann could stretch the truth and be a liar by omission, but now that Shiho was asking, there was no point, she let the twins know. "It was when I first noticed the bruises last year. However, he kept steadily increasing the demands, it came to a head last week when he asked for sex, again." Ann spilt the beans, knowing there was no point in lying to Shiho. "He offered me an ultimatum, I'd either stop by his place or you'd be removed from the team."

"You chose to remove me from the team," Shiho said, her voice shaking and her eyes blazing with rage

"I told him to go fuck a gym sock, I didn't know if he would keep his end of the deal." Ann said, trying to calm Shiho down "I didn't know that, it would get this bad." She added, her voice low "I did everything in my power to protect you. But I couldn't go through with it, I must be some shitty friend." It was true, she had kept the relationship a secret for the same exact reason she entered that relationship. Shiho's eyes were still angry.

"But why never tell me? Didn't it concern you that I might want to know why my friend was looking so dead inside." Shiho asked, did Ann really look that bad when she was dating Kamoshida, she supposes that her eyes didn't shine nearly as much.

"I couldn't think of anything to do and I didn't know how you would react to the news, whenever I talked to you, I forgot about the relationship, or at least rationalised it in my head, it was worth it to see you smile again," Ann said, realising that she was coming dangerously close to confessing to Shiho, she wants a distraction, just literally anything else so that she doesn't have to tell Shiho the full truth, Ann didn't want to ruin her friendship like that.

"So you hid the minor fact that you were dating the gym teacher, from me?" Shiho asked, there were a few tears that were falling and her voice was shaky. Ann was extremely glad that the Diner was empty for this time of day, though she could feel the waitress there giving her a dirty look.

"Yes, I was," Ann said, she wasn't entirely sure how to proceed with this conversation, she really hoped that literally, anything else would happen, that was when her phone buzzed, several times, she would answer it, but Shiho wouldn't appreciate that "You never really asked and I thought I could dodge the topic. I'm going to assume that you heard how the conversation ended, I have broken up with Kamoshida." Ann held out one of her napkins to Shiho for her to use as a tissue. Which the dark haired girl accepted.

"Thanks, Ann." Shiho said, wiping away her tears "You've always been so nice to me." Ann's face was red from the praise, how was that dark-haired girl able to so quickly steal her heart? How was she able to mess with Ann's emotions so easily?

Ann just nodded, instead of saying what she really thought, Shiho still thought of Ann as a friend didn't she? Though she didn't want Shiho to figure this one out right now. Ann's phone vibrated several more times. "Do you mind if I look at these texts?" Shiho nodded "Good, you might want to drink your coffee."

Ko: Hey

Ko: Why'd none of you tell me how pretty Makoto was?

Ko: I figured she wouldn't be that good looking but damn

Ko: Why aren't you responding?

Ko: Managed to confess your undying love to Shiho?

Ko: If so, tell how it went.

Ann looked at these texts with a somewhat sour glare, Minako's teasing did not help with her feelings, though it seems that Minako had the hots for a senpai. She had teasing ammo against Minako

Ann: I thought her hotness was common knowledge

Ann: Didn't think you were the type to crush on a Senpai

Ko: Shut up

Ann: Only if you stop teasing me over Shiho

Ko: Fine, I'll try.

Ko: It's not my fault that Makoto is hot.

Ko: Moving on from Gay Stuff

Ko: How is Shiho actually?

Ann: Currently with me.

Ann: Found out that I was dating Kamoshida

Ann: Also found out that I just broke up with Kamoshida.

Ko: Still pretty?

Ann: Still pretty.

Ann: Wait, shit.

Ko: This is fun.

Ann: Shut up

"What's it about?" Shiho asked, curious at Ann's facial expression

"Minako's texting me." Ann remarked "She can be ... interesting when it comes to texts."

"How so?"

"She's benefitting from the fact that someone can't punch her through a screen, for one," Ann said, it was true, she did lack the ability to punch through a screen and Minako was certainly benefitting from that. "She also takes a large amount of joy in teasing people." Ann took a sip of her coffee and noticed that it was getting cold, she really should have drunk this coffee faster. As long as Shiho didn't take an interest in what the teasing was about Ann would be good.

18/04/2018 - 16:25 - Shujin Academy - Niijima Makoto

"Yori-san," Makoto called out as she ran up to the girl, who was one of the few people in the school who actually wore the full school uniform without swapping out anything, though her hair was longer than school regulations, but Makoto could list all the girls on one finger who cared about that rule, Makoto was one of the people who did care about the rule. "I just want to talk to you about something."

The long-haired girl stopped walking and faced Makoto, "What is it you want to talk about Niijima-san?"

"Has there been anything interesting happen with the volleyball team?" Makoto asked

"Nothing that interesting, Suzui-san seems to have left the club based on the fact that she missed two practice sessions. I also think this third year has left the volleyball team as well, Ikki-kun, I think." Yori than looked at Makoto oddly "That's about all I can think of, off the top of my head, why do you want to know this?"

"I'm sort of interested, you know, considering recent events," Makoto said, waving off the question with practised ease. "Thanks for telling me anyway, it's been good talking to you." Makoto bowed slightly and walked away from Yori.

18/04/2018 - 17:00 - Shibuya Station - Arisato Minako

To be honest, Minako would admit that she had long since blown her monthly budget and was dipping into next months budget, in short, she had severely underestimated the cost of living in Tokyo.

As such, she found herself looking at the pamphlets for part-time jobs, convenience store job, didn't pay that well but had low requirements, beef bowl place, required a hard worker but was also only in the evening, which immediately ruled it out due to the fact that Sojiro wasn't letting them out during the evening. Finally, there was a job offer at a flower shop, which looked like it would be easy money.

"What you looking at?" Minato asked, walking up behind his sister.

"Some job pamphlets." She answered "I think I found one for you." she handed him the flower shop pamphlet. She could hear his eye twitching.

"You blew your monthly budget, didn't you?" Minato asked, his voice stern

"Yes," Minako said, "Everything in this city is ridiculously expensive. I'll take a look round some of these pamphlets, I only took a quick glance." Minako looked around and saw one for 'Crossroads Bar' it was in the city's red light district, she saw another one, it was looking for a part-time tutor. Minako felt a grin creep its way onto her face from just seeing that "Scratch the job at the flower shop, here's one that's perfect." She handed him the tutor job, though a small part of her wanted to hand him the one for Crossroads Bar, "This one is also really good for you." She said as she passed him the aforementioned pamphlet. There was a moment of silence as Minato read through each pamphlet and then he slapped Minako upside the head.

"You're really funny." Minato said sarcastically "Though seriously, the tutor job was a good idea." He reached into the pamphlets and pulled out one, "Hm, it seems to be a maid cafe job in Akihabara." He laughed and Minako was somewhat amused by the boy's high pitched laughter.

"Yes, dress up in an embarrassing outfit, refer to everyone as 'master' and appeal to otakus and weeaboos alike." Minako said, taking a look at it "Though it pays well, and it does place me in an area relevant to my interests." She took the pamphlet and put it into her pocket, she couldn't tell what Minato put into his pocket but she figured that it was either the flower shop job or the tutor job.

"Do you think you'll get the job?" Minato asked

"Absolutely not, but it should give me some good practice for the actual process," she answered, her voice certain and bit humorous. Her phone vibrated, she looked down at it.

Makoto: Hey, Minako

Ko: Yeah,

Makoto: just talked to the school newspaper girl

Makoto: Some third-year left the volleyball team, Ikki-kun.

Ko: Thanks

Minako looked up from the phone, "Makoto just gave us another name."

"Another member of the volleyball team?" Minato asked

"Left it recently, goes by 'Ikki-kun' don't have any other details, Makoto will probably look up his file later," Minako answered.

"Another name and that means, another lead."

"The game is afoot," Minako said jokingly, with a tone of voice reminiscent of the old detective novels.

I figured that Shiho would eventually hear about Ann's relationship with Kamoshida if she hadn't heard it and if she hadn't, she might feel betrayed in a way by the relationship.

In terms of Kamoshida's age, I don't think we're actually given a figure, however, based on the fact that it is likely that Kamoshida has been doing it for years and based off his comment in canon about "When I was still rocking it." I would figure that he would be at least in his late forties and at worst, in his early sixties (with the help of hair dye to conceal any grey hairs and he is athletic, so he'd be in good condition

While with the twins, I decided that the twins would start worrying about their budget due to the fact that everything in a capital city is hella expensive. Also, Minato's possible tutor job was at the suggestion of a certain commenter, y'know on AO3 where this was originally posted.

As always, I am begging you to review, it is something that gives me the will to write this.