4) The Murderer in the Woods

Part 1

It is the last week of April, and it is another good morning at Negi's 1-A class. All the girls were present in the room, waiting for their young teacher to show up. While they were waiting, Asuna and the other members of the Mystery Club got together in the back of the room and discussed something.

"So girls, what do you think we should do?" Haruna asked as she was sitting in her seating position.

"I don't know," Satsuki replied, "but we really need to repay Matt for all the hard work he did."

"There must be some way," Chisame said in her seating position. "Three mysteries he solved in a row, and we haven't repaid him a good award."

"Well, didn't we become official members of his club?" Eva pointed out as she puts her hands behind her head and leans back on her seating chair.

"Yes Eva," Yue replied, sitting next Chisame, "but not good enough. Matt Oda has risked his life to save our beloved Negi when he's about to get sucked by that phantom. A human without magic wouldn't normally make a move like that, but Matt Oda is something else. He is smart and bold."

"Yeah, I can vouch to that," Asuna confirmed.

Konoka thought hard and came up with an idea. "Hey I know," she said. "How about we throw Matt Oda a party?" Every member looked at Konoka. "Matt has been working hard from those last three cases he solved, so I'm sure he deserves a refreshing party to celebrate his success."

Everyone was astounded by Konoka's idea. "A great idea Konoka," Satomi replied. "I'll bet Matt loves it when we show our gratitude to him."

"Mm-hmm," Chao nodded, "And maybe he'll love it when he tastes our home-made cooking."

"You think so?" Nodoka questioned, standing next to Yue. "Remember Matt came from America, so he might not have the taste of Japanese food right now."

"Oh, I'm really sure Matt is going to love my food," Satsuki said happily.

Every member started to giggle and smile until Ayaka, the class representative, sees them talking to each other. She walked to the group and got their attention. "Hey everyone," Ayaka said with her arms crossed. Some of the members replied and said hi. "Let me ask you something, girls. Lately, I been noticing these past days that you were always walking out together every afternoon, especially with professor Negi. Tell me where have you been going lately?"

Asuna stood up and replies to Ayaka with a firm look, "If you want to know Blonde, we've been visiting the Mystery Club every single day."

"The Mystery Club?"

"Yeah, that's where Matt Oda is," Haruna said.

"Matt Oda?" Ayaka begins to think and remember something. "He's that guy who is the leader of the club and made the headline news. I saw his flyers, and I been thinking of seeing this Matt Oda myself."

"Really, Ayaka?" Konoka asked in a little surprise.

"However, due to my responsibilities as a class representative and my important clubs, I just don't have the time to meet him."

"Well, that's a shame." Setsuna in little disappointment.

"Don't you girls think I would miss my chance to meet him." Ayaka softly glares at them. "Because I really want to know what's so special about Matt Oda."

"Well if you do meet him class rep, he really is a nice guy," Yue commented,

"I hope you're right, Yue," Ayaka responded.

The front door of the classroom opened, and in came Negi carrying his roster book in his left arm. Everyone saw him and took their seats. Everyone stood and bowed at the teacher saying good morning.

"Good morning, everyone," Negi said with glee. "Now, let's continue our lecture from where we left off yesterday." As Negi writes his notes on the board, Asuna, Chisame, Yue, and Haruna leaned close together and whispered.

"I'll bring in the cake." Asuna said.

"Then Yue and I will bring in some sweets and snacks for the club," Haruna said as she winked.

"Matt is going like this surprise," Chisame said with a small grin.

Unbeknownst to the four girls talking to each other, Mana watches closely at them. She looked back at her desk and pulls a paper out of her pocket. She unfolded it, which is the flyer of Matt's Mystery Club.

Kazumi and Sayo were also watching the four girls talking in the back, as the paparazzi also had a flyer of the Mystery Club. "You thinking of joining them?" Sayo asked Kazumi.

"We'll see, depending on my reporting club," Kazumi replied.


Later that afternoon, just outside of the Kuyoku forest, a teen girl came out of the bushes and slowly limps to the open area. She fell to the ground as her whole body was full of deadly lacerations and scratches. Her clothes were ripped, she lost her right shoe, and one of her pigtail hairs has been loosened leaving part of her hair all the way down to her hips.

She was breathing heavily as she tries to get up on her feet. As she looked up, she sees Mahora Academy about half a mile away from her just down the hill. "I… made it," she said in great pain while she is breathing. She finally stood up and holds onto her left arm that it was seriously injured. She begins to limp down the hill, and she struggles to limp all the way back to Mahora Academy, hoping she would make it there safely.

In the hallways of the English department, Negi and all the members of the Mystery Club carried food and drinks towards the club room. The librarians carried boxes sweets and candies, Konoka and Setsuna each carried a bag of plates and plastic dish utensils, Negi has bottles and cans of juices and soft drinks in his arms, Asuna carried a white-covered vanilla cake, Satsuki, Satomi, and Chao carried bentos of meat buns and other delectable dishes, and Chisame, Eva, and Chachamaru carried bags of chips and snacks.

Chamo appeared and hopped onto Negi's head. "So throwing a party?" Chamo asked, "That sounds like a great idea, you guys."

"Well, we owe everything to Matt-san," Konoka said with a smile. "He's been working hard, so he should deserve something rewarding."

"Solving the kidnapping, Satomi and Chao's machine, and the bell tower. That's an amazing feat for Matt Oda-san," Haruna stated.

"I wonder if this is too much food for Matt," Nodoka wondered in a worried mood.

"Don't worry, this food isn't only for Matt Oda," Chao stated. "We're all going to eat it with Matt."

Then Professor Negi and his students arrived at the Mystery Club's front door. Negi knocks, but no one answered. He knocked again, and still, no answer. The group started to worry, thinking that maybe Matt was out for the day. Usually, they waited for Matt Oda to call them in, but they were growing a little impatient and decided to go inside the club. They all looked around in the room and Matt was nowhere to be seen.

"That's really odd," Chisame said and ponders. "We saw him this morning. Where could he be?"

"It looks like he just went out somewhere," Satomi said as she called out to her friends. They all turned to Satomi as she is looking at the chalkboard.

The gang all looked at the chalkboard, and there it had a message:

"Gone out, be back soon. Please, enjoy yourselves."

It was written by Matt as his name appeared on the board after he wrote his message.

"I wonder where he went?" Haruna questioned.

"Don't know. Maybe he is doing a paperwork errand?" Chao responded and guessed.

They are a little disappointed that Matt is not here at the club for the moment, but then Konoka came up with another thought. "Hey, I know what we can do while we wait for Matt," Konoka speaks.

"And what's that?" Negi asked.

Everyone looked at Konoka as she smiles at everyone. "I think Matt's is going like it even more."


At Dean Konoe's office, Matt and the dean are discussing to each other.

"I want to say congratulations and thanking you for your successful mystery-solving skills," the dean complimented.

"Oh, don't mention it," Matt replied shyly. "I was just glad to help."

"I also wanted to say thanks for keeping the secret of us wizards to the open public. You know us wizards are not used for abusive ambitions for the humans, and we can't have the balance of humans and mages go out of control."

"Of course, Dean Konoe." Matt saluted. "Even though I am an honest gentleman, I do have the right to seal any secrecy that involves magic and other mage activities. We don't want the government or the presses to find out and use you guys for something so bad."

"Indeed Matt, I can sense you have a pure and golden heart in you." The dean pulled out two objects from his desk drawers and puts them on the desk. One is a small envelope, and the other is a card inside plastic protection with a lanyard on it. "For doing a fabulous job, I have two gifts to give you." Matt observes at the objects while the dean shows them with his right hand. "Here in this envelope is your payday plus your reward money on the cases you solved. And here is your official Mahora Academy Staff I.D. card."

Matt takes the two items both in his hands and smiles. "Ah, cool. Thanks Dean."

"You're very welcome." The dean smiled too. "That's it for today. You may return to your club."

"Thanks dean, see you later." Matt walks to the front doors and exits the room.

The dean smoothes his beard. "That Matt Oda, he is a fine and good man."


In the hallways of the English department, Matt got his card around his neck, and he opened his envelope with the money inside. He didn't take the money out of the envelope, but he looks at it with a check on top of the stack of yen. The check stated Matt received and rewarded about 355,000 yen. "That's more than I expected," Matt said in a surprise mood. "But this reward should be shared with my members and Negi."

Matt reached the front doors of the club. "Well, here I am," he said. "I'm sure they are waiting for me. I hope they didn't grow too impatient." As he opened the doors…

"SURPRISE!"

"EEEEAAHH!" Matt screamed as he jumped all the way up to the ceiling. Negi and the girls looked up in a confused look as Matt was hanging onto a ceiling lamp. "Guys, what was that for!? You scared me."

"Sorry Matt, we didn't mean to scare you," Konoka answered back to Matt.

"We just thought we throw you a party to celebrate your successful cases." Asuna explained.

Matt dropped down from the ceiling lamp and landed on the floor safely. "A party for me?" Matt questioned. The gang nodded and let Matt Oda inside the club.

When Matt got inside the club, he sees that two of his tables contained a variety of Japanese foods and drinks. Matt was amazed and never felt this gifted before. "Wow… I don't know what to say… except thank you, everyone." Matt smiled and his face turned a little bit red.

"You deserved this delicious reward, Matt," Yue declared. "You worked very hard, and you earned it."

Setsuna spotted Matt's I.D. card on his chest. "Hey, I see you got an I.D. card."

Matt turns to Setsuna and then looks at his card. "Oh yeah, I just got this just a few moments ago."

Negi gets close to Matt and observes his card. On it had Matt's face picture on the left side, next to it in the top row says "Mahora Academy," below the school name is Matthew's name and says "Staff Member," and on the right side behind the text is the logo of the academy.

"You look good in this picture." Negi complemented Matt.

"Really, it's my normal face like everything else," Matt replied.

While Matt was scratching his head, Haruna spotted an envelope that's held in Matt's left hand. She makes a cheeky and dirty look on her face, and her glasses flashed. Yoink! Haruna snatched the envelope, and Matt noticed it.

"Well, what do we got here?" Haruna said as she opened the envelope.

"Hey Haruna! that's mine!" Matt shouted.

When she opened the envelope and pulled out what's inside, she saw the stack of yen bills and the check attached to it. "What the…!? 355,000 yen!?" Haruna shouted making everyone hear what she said.

"Talk about fortunate's luck!" surprised Satomi.

"Matt, where did you get this money?" Haruna asked.

Matt swiped his money back from Haruna. "I got it from the dean," Matt stated. "It's my payday of this month and the reward money from the last cases."

"Well, you started here at Mahora Academy not too long ago, so your payday is little," Chao stated as she put her right finger on her cheek. "But your achievement in solving those cases must be of how you got that much money."

"Aw! No fair!" Haruna complained. "We were part of the mystery-solving team too. So shouldn't we at least have our reward too?"

"I have to agree," Chisame confirmed. "All of us are part of the team, so isn't it fair that we have our reward rights too?"

Matt scratches his head. "Well, that's just it. There's no reason to complain because I'm sharing my reward money to all of you."

"EEHHHHHH!?" Everyone shouted.

"You… you really mean it Matt?" Nodoka calmly questioned.

"Of course, I couldn't solve the mysteries without your help, so every one of us deserves a reward." Everyone smiled and was delighted by Matt Oda's generous gift. "So, how should we split it?"

Everyone talked it out of having a fair share from Matt's reward money. They decided Matt should have more yen than everyone else because he's mostly the one who solved the mysteries and risked his life on the job. So they decided that each member and Negi will receive 15,000 yen. Matt split the money and shared it with everyone, leaving Matt Oda with 160,000 yen.

Everyone was pleased with their reward, except… "Hey Matt! Where's my reward!?" Chamo yelled in a complaint.

Matt gave Chamo a confused look. "Well Chamo, Asuna pointed me out the other day about using your money for… unnecessary and unambiguous nonsense."

Chamo blinked, and then he turns to Asuna who is staring in a stern look at the ermine fairy. Chamo sweatdropped and says, "Right… I get ya."

Matt calls out to his members, "Alright, everybody. With our reward taken care of, let's enjoy the feast."

Everybody, except for Chachamaru and Eva that they just smiled, jump and shouted, "YEEEAAHHH!"


Later that afternoon, when the sun is setting, Matt and everyone had a good time with the party. Matt ate his last meat bun from Satsuki and Chao's cooking.

"This is delicious!" Matt said happily with his mouth stuff up a little. "You two cooks know how to satisfy someone with a great taste."

"Thanks Matt," Satsuki replied with a smile. "We appreciate your compliment."

"I'm surprised you can still eat Japanese food," said Asuna as she walks toward Matt.

"What you think I eat American food all the time?" Matt said sarcastically. "My home country has a wide variety of food from different countries."

Konoka and Setsuna came along. "We're very happy that you are happy Matt-san," Konoka said in a cheery mood.

"Aw, gee," Matt blushes a little. "Hey, I'm going to get a drink."

Matt leaves the group and grabs one of the sodas and pours it into his cup of ice. When he took his cup, he turns to the window and looks outside the sunset scenery. After watching the colorful sunset scene, he looks back at his members and grins. "I'm glad I have good friends like them," he says to himself.

He looks out the window again and watches the sunset. He took a sip from his drink and looks at the academy grounds. But then in his view, Matt stopped drinking his soda and jolted. There, in shock, he sees a girl with her clothes torn up and severe cuts all over her body lying on the cement ground.