Emma's meeting had begun, and Vash could tell by the look on her face that such meetings caused her ego to rise even higher than it already was. She looked even bossier than usual, and much more business-oriented. The first topic was cleanliness, a repulsive subject that reminded him too much of Roderich Edelstein, who was also in the room, nodding at everything Emma said.
"May I have your attention please," said Emma. "However negligible it may seem, cleanliness is important for the future of this club. It just so happens that the school gave us permission to hold these club meetings on the condition that we would help make the school a better and cleaner place. And yet, certain club members, such as Feliks and Milen, are still disposing their garbage in the school gardens instead of in the garbage bin or the Exchange Machine. Raise your hand if you have anything to say about this. Yes, Tim?"
"I think cleanliness is of the utmost importance," said Tim-Govert, while Roderich and Ludwig nodded approvingly. "I think Feliks and Milen should give us part of their pocket money as punishment." Greedy Roderich nodded again, but Ludwig and several of the others looked skeptical.
"That's like totally unfair!" Feliks exclaimed. "I barely get any pocket money!"
"No interruptions, please," said Emma. "You may raise your hand if you wish to speak."
They argued for a long time about garbage. It was utterly ridiculous. Wasn't the answer obvious? No one should be allowed to throw their garbage in the school garden or any other place of nature, and people who disobeyed these rules should undo their actions by cleaning things up. There was no need to involve pocket money or club membership in this discussion.
Next in line was the subject of Herakles' debts. Vash immediately became more alert. He couldn't see where the masked guy - Sadik - was sitting, but he kept his eyes on Emma, Elisaveta, Ludwig, Milen and Vladimir. He needed to know all the suspects' reactions to Herakles and his financial issues.
"We need to make sure that Herakles pays off his debts as soon as possible, preferably before the end of this semester," said Emma. "I suggest we use a system where the longer he owes us money, the more he has to pay us back. Yes, Vladimir?" The vampire boy had raised his hand.
"Wouldn't that be inefficient? He'll just end up having more and more debts this way. You need a scarier punishment to threaten him to pay us back now, so that he won't keep delaying it!" Milen nodded at his friend's statement.
"The policy in this club does not include frightening people, thank you very much," said Emma. "Ludwig, what do you have to say?"
Ludwig sighed. "Herakles is having a hard time." His voice sounded tense. "He lost something dear to him, and I suggest we give him some extra time before we bother him about his debts. He has other things on his mind right now."
This was the last thing Vash had expected Ludwig to say. It had seemed clear that he had a problem with Herakles, probably involving his strange dreams, and he had expected him to say something negative about him, since he had seemed so angry. And Vash wasn't the only one to be taken by surprise. A whole bunch of hands flashed up in protest, including Tim-Govert's and Elisaveta's, but Emma shushed them.
"Calm down, everybody. Ludwig's proposal is not an unreasonable one." The debate continued, and Emma tried to make compromises between the arguing parties. After several attempts to agreement, she looked at her watch and stated:
"Enough about Herakles. It is time to examine the contestants applying for club membership: bring them in!" She signaled to Ludwig, who stood up and went to the side of the room, where he opened the door and let in three students. The first was short male - probably a freshman - and had dark, curly hair. The second looked like a beach girl and her full figure made her look slightly older than the boy, but too young to be a senior: maybe she was a sophomore, or perhaps she just looked older because girls start puberty at a younger age. The third was the guy in the mask: Sadik.
"Welcome, contestants, to our admission ceremony." She turned to the other club members. "These, my friends, are the three contestants wishing to gain entry into our association. Only one of the three will be accepted into our group, and it's up to us to decide which one. The choice is between contestant number one, Nikola..." She paused here to let a few people applaud or boo the boy. "...contestant number two, Lucija..." Another pause to leave room for reactions. "...and contestant number three, Sadik!" She led the three contestants to a table in front, behind which they had to take place, facing the audience of club members.
"I'm in! I'm in! Contestant number four is Peter Kirkland!" A little boy in a sailor hat had rushed into the room and was shouting in a high-pitched voice. He looked like he belonged in elementary school, but he was wearing a middle school uniform.
"Get out of here, Peter," said Emma. "Club membership application is for high school students only."
Peter stomped on the floor in protest. "That's a lie! Raivis and Jerome are still in middle school!" Raivis? Vash frowned at the idea of one of his sister's friends being a member of this club.
Emma rolled her eyes. "Raivis and Jerome are not eleven years old. They'll be in high school next year."
"That's not fair!" yelled Peter. "I'm not eleven: I'm twelve! I've just had my birthday, you know! And Jerome was eleven when he was admitted: that's a lot younger than I am!"
Emma shook her head and sighed. "Jerome was mature, and he had friends. Nobody likes you."
Peter started protesting again, but Emma ignored him and ordered Ludwig to remove him from the room, as he was "disturbing the admission ceremony".
"Now we can finally begin the procedures," she stated. "Contestant number one, will you please step forward?"
The boy called Nikola now became the center of attention. Emma asked him numerous personal questions, and Vash didn't understand why anyone would let himself be prodded in such a manner just to join a stupid club.
"Do you like partying?" she asked him.
"Yes," he said.
"Do you think you are able to engage in discussions without offending others or feeling attacked?"
"Sure, if people will stop bugging me about my name."
"It sounds like you're already offended," she said, sounding amused. "Is it true that you've been having problems with your mental health?"
Nikola frowned. "So would you if you had nine siblings bothering you every day."
For a second, Emma looked worried or angry or something in-between, but then she resumed her bossy expression.
"You may now sit down. Contestant number two, will you step forward?" It was the beach girl Lucija's turn.
"Do you like to party?"
"Always," said Lucija.
"Do you think you'd fit in here?"
"Yes," said Lucija.
"I've heard from Arthur Kirkland that you've been caught throwing garbage in the flower beds. Are you willing to fix this behavior if you join our club?"
"Of course I am," said Lucija.
Emma went on, mentioning a few times when Lucija had acted hateful or ignorant. Lucija smiled, apologized, and said that was in the past, and she would make sure not to do anything silly like that again. Several people cheered.
"Thank you, Lucija," said Emma, signaling for her to sit down. It was Sadik's turn now.
"Sadik, will you take your mask off for this meeting? We would like to see your face."
Several people laughed. Sadik briefly lifted up the mask, winked at the audience, and put it back over his face.
"Sadik," said Emma, "do you like partying?"
"Yes," said Sadik.
"And do you like debating?"
"Yes."
"Is it true that you have often bullied Herakles?"
"No," said Sadik. "Our hatred has never been one-sided. Our families have hated each other ever since our mothers fought over the same girl. That time, his mother used a nasty trick to beat us, but I'm not like his mother and neither is he. We fight fair. We don't bully; we don't do sneaky things. We fight and take revenge openly. Alfred asked me about it just before this meeting, and I told him the whole story of our feud. That's how it is."
Emma and most of the others seemed content with this answer. When Emma mentioned some other people Sadik had bullied, his answers were a lot less clear, and some people in the audience started booing, but Ludwig told them to stop and that this club should treat people fairly.
"Alright," said Emma when her interviews were over. "Before we vote, are there any questions?"
Arthur raised his hand. "What happens if you want to leave?"
Emma looked like someone was trying to convince her that the moon was made of cheese.
"Leave what?" she asked, blinking. "Leave the club? Don't be ridiculous. Once you're in this club, you can never leave. Since there aren't any real questions, let's start the voting. Who votes for contestant number one: Nikola?"
A couple people raised their hands hesitantly.
"Who votes for contestant number two: Lucija?"
A significantly larger amount of people raised their hands, and even more after Emma had raised hers. Almost the entire room now had their hands in the air.
"And who votes for contestant number three: Sadik?"
From where he was standing, Vash could only see one hand in the air, and he was guessing there were only two or three in total.
"Well," said Emma, "that seems pretty ob..."
She stopped and stared right into Vash's face.
"Oh... Why, hello there, Vash..." She put on her sweetest smile. "I see we do have a fourth contestant, after all. Will you please step forward, contestant number four? We've all been waiting for this moment for a long time, haven't we?"
"I..." Everyone was looking at him now. He felt caught in a trap. If he didn't go along with Emma's proposal, she would know he was up to something. But if he pretended to be interested in joining their stupid club, he could end up stuck there forever! After all, Emma had just said that once you were in, there was no way out...
"I'm not here to join your ridiculous club," he stated sternly. "Let Lucija join. She had the most votes. Fair is fair."
"If you weren't here to apply for membership," asked Emma, "then why did you intrude in our club meeting?"
"I was... lost," Vash muttered. "I... thought we were going to class, so I was following my classmates, but they went here instead."
"Classes are already over," said Emma.
"I figured that," said Vash.
"Then why did you stay and watch?" asked Emma.
"I... thought it looked interesting," said Vash. "But I was wrong. This club is nothing but hypocrisy and useless debating, and I will not waste another moment here, thank you very much. Goodbye." He turned around and left. Matthew followed him silently. When they were at their dorm, he mumbled: "Nice save."
"That was close though," said Vash. And it wasn't as safe as Matthew seemed to think. Emma must have realized he was lying. How much was she able to guess?
"Did you get any interviews done before Emma's meeting?" he asked, trying to regain control over the situation.
"Most of them..." Matthew showed him the notes he'd taken about the subtle conversations he had held, and they examined them together. Sadik's interview explained his mutual hatred with Herakles in detail: he was clearly the most cooperative and the least suspicious out of all the subjects. He had a strong alibi, confirmed by six people unrelated to the incident, and he had such an obvious motive that Vash and Matthew didn't think he would attempt anything sneaky against Herakles, since their feud would make him the first person anyone would suspect. Vash crossed him off the list, leaving Milen, Vladimir, Elisaveta, Ludwig, Emma and Alfred.
"I haven't talked to Alfred yet... It'd be a bit awkward interviewing my own brother as a crime suspect, and I won't be able to use the 'pretend I'm Alfred' trick on him either. And I couldn't find Milen or Vladimir anywhere, so I'll chat with them at the table sometime... But at least I could get a little bit out of the other three... Ludwig and Elisaveta both admitted they'd gotten angry at Herakles today, but neither of them wanted to give many details. I asked Ludwig if it was related to his cats, and then he yelled at me and said it had nothing to do with the stupid cats. Then I asked if it was related to Herakles's weird dreams, and he got kind of tense and quiet... I asked Elisaveta the same questions, but she didn't really tell me anything, and when I mentioned the dreams, she seemed confused and didn't see what that had to do with anything and that Herakles had had dreams like that as long as she could remember. Both Ludwig and Elisaveta said that they normally had no problem with Herakles, except for the occasional annoyance of his laziness. Emma did mention something about Herakles owing her money, but after that she'd said that she didn't harbor any hatred towards him and that the club was certain to find a solution for his financial problems."
"What about their alibis?"
"Ludwig has none. He said he'd spent lunch break on his own because he 'needed to think', and Feliciano added that he had looked for him outside, thinking he was training or picking flowers, and that he'd gotten really worried when he couldn't find him anywhere, and that actually, he was still a bit worried about him, since he'd been kind of sad for a long time and overworked himself a lot. Emma, on the other hand, said she was in the cafeteria, and a whole bunch of her friends confirmed this. As for Elisaveta, she claimed she was with Roderich the entire time, but the only one who confirmed that was Roderich himself, so it's possible that they did something together..."
"Speaking of Elisaveta," said Vash, "did you find out whether she has some sort of technology phobia?"
"Not that I know of..." Matthew muttered. "Why would you think that? You only just met her... We did a computer project last year and she never freaked out..."
"She came up to me once when I was using the Exchange Machine," he answered, "and gave me some sort of warning. She seemed very serious about it. She told me to watch out, and that the Machine disturbed her and was a stupid way for me to spend my time."
Matthew clenched the sheets of the bed he was sitting on. He looked perplexed, like someone had slapped him in the face. His lips moved, but no sound came out. This must be how he whispers...