"Your dad is a police officer, right?" Kise asked Rima as they waited for Etsuko and Chihiro to exit the Debate Club. Momo had left briefly to go use the bathroom.
Why isn't she talking?
The silence from the girl is what caused Kise to toss her a look.
Did she hear him?
Rima was side-eyeing him. Her black hair had recently gotten cut to perfect the straightness of her bob. It hung to her chin, the raven color of her hair seemed to have natural blue strands when the sun reflected against her.
She has a pocket mirror held up in front of her face, they had been talking about the basketball club. Etsuko and her friends, his friends too now, he supposes.
They always made Kise feel included and cared about, asking questions about his school team, and other things Kise is interested in. They all also had a silent pact to not bring up the elephant in the room, A.K.A: the murders.
Chihiro had recently confirmed that her nightmares were getting worse. Momo would turn pale or green every time the subject was breached. Rima didn't visibly show much distress but when people talked about Akira she would excuse herself. Kise himself had grown to be afraid of his own shadow, and Etsuko well . . .
Etsuko seemed to be herself, but Kise just knew something was troubling her.
That gloomy shine in her vibrant blue-eyes made Kise squirm with sadness. He wanted to fix it.
"Yes..." Rima answered him hesitantly. At her judgmental tone, Kise felt himself bristle in embarrassment.
"Don't look at me like that! I'm just curious," he rubbed at the back of his neck. "Did he tell you any details, like, on the case?"
She flipped the mirror shut with a roll of her eyes, tucking it into her pocket, she crossed her arms. "No."
Kise deflated. "However, that didn't stop me from snooping."
His gaze jumped. Rima snooping? It seemed far-fetched, she was so... well not that he was judging . . . she was... nice?
A goody-two-shoes in a way, like Momo.
"My brother-in-law works with the detectives as well." she shared with him, glancing the surrounding area to make sure there was no-one around but them.
This was new to him, he figured out just recently that her father was a cop, but now another family member was as well? It made him realize how little attention he offered towards his new friends, all he ever paid attention to was Etsuko.
It made his stomach drop and his face heat. The knowing look in Rima's eyes caused him to shiver.
"What do you want to know?" she asked shifting around, an uncomfortable grimace briefly appearing on her face.
"Um, I don't know," he felt stumped. What did he want to know? Besides the obvious, no one was caught yet. "Any... suspects?" he offered lamely.
She shrugged her shoulders. "Honestly, not really. Every lead seems to be falling through the cracks."
His stomach sank. "Oh."
It became awkward after that.
"Momo is taking a while," Rima muttered after a moment of silence. "I'm going to check on her." The bathroom wasn't far, they could see it from where they stood near the Debate Club room, and a few minutes at a time there were people walking through the halls. Kise still felt uneasy about being 'alone'.
"I'll walk with you." he too noticed the red-heads absence, it made him nervous.
As they walked the short distance together, Rima stopped halfway and turned to him with a serious look in her eye.
"They will find whoever has been doing this, Kise." then she walked into the girl's bathroom and left him gaping after her like an idiot.
A few seconds later she walked out with a puzzled expression. "What?" Kise asked feeling antsy.
"She's not in there." the raven-haired girl replied, as she whipped out her cell-phone and began texting someone.
"We saw her go in," Kise muttered.
He watched as Rima got frustrated and brought her phone to her ear to make a call. Then, again, and again, and again.
Panic started to set into her face.
"Maybe I should get security." he was shaking. This can't be happening on school grounds, not again.
"I got your text." the monotonous voice startled him, he whipped around to see a concerned Etsuko now standing behind them. The blatant crack in her blank exterior caused his already worried state to worsen.
Rima put down her phone. "What the hell is going?!" she sounded angry, although the distressed hiccup in her voice softened the viciousness.
"Chihiro didn't show up to club today," Etsuko informed them her breath hitching. "I thought something was wrong and couldn't shake the feeling. She always comes to the club, and if she didn't want to, she would have told me she wasn't coming, beforehand."
Kise watched as she shakily pulled out her phone. Her nerves were so prominent that she almost dropped the device several times.
"So, I texted her and she responded eventually, telling me she was with you guys."
"Not possible! We were waiting outside the club room for you both almost the whole time!" Rima sputtered, tears dripping down her cheeks. "We all promised at lunch to walk back to your place, remember?"
"Yeah," Etsuko rasped. "Which is why it didn't sit right with me, but then I got a message from Momo."
Kise's blood-chilled. "She said you guys were... waiting. All of you." her voice sounded so small as if she believed herself an idiot for trusting in her friends and not listening to her gut.
"I'm going to get security, or even better a cop," Kise said. "Come-on."
They were all questioned and shortly after, a search began immediately for the two missing girls. All three of their phones were confiscated as evidence, and their parents were notified.
Rima had been sobbing, now she sat there cheeks red and silent as tears continued to stream down her face. Her head was nestled into Etsuko's shoulder.
Kise noted she didn't look much better.
How was this possible?
It made no sense.
Honestly only, Chihiro's disappearance made sense. Even if was just barely. Their little group had parted ways during lunch, Kise going to his class and the girls to their own.
Etsuko shared a class with all three girls, and they had been all present. Plus, Chihiro and Etsuko always walked to debate together.
Etsuko said Chihiro stayed behind after class to ask the teacher some questions, so she left. Rima and Momo came to meet him at Basketball practice, were his sempai attempted to flirt with them for the next hour and a half. By the time the three of them walked to the Debate Club door, they only had to wait another 30 minutes or so for Etsuko and Chihiro to exit.
If Chihiro had to walk to the club on her own, it was a stretched theory, however, because she was alone there was a bigger chance of disappearance without anyone noticing.
Momoko on the other hand, literally walked into a bathroom, a few feet away from where Rima and Kise himself stood. And poof- she's gone?
It was all way too quick and it wasn't sitting well with him.
Or the police.
Or anyone.
"Kise." Looking up the blond male saw Kasamatsu.
His parents were informed of what happened and although they were extremely worried, they were in a position where they could not be home anytime soon.
His parents had been dropping off Ume at the airport, she had some important international business to attend to. The airport was hours away, they left early in the morning, and stayed at the airport to help his sister check-in. Then, of course, her flight was canceled, twice, and his parents didn't feel comfortable leaving her alone especially with all that has been going on recently.
They were keeping Kise informed of course, before his phone was taken, constantly texting him updates and had currently been on the way back, but traffic was terrible at the moment.
And Shizuku, she wasn't answering her phone, by the time she did, his parents had already managed to contact Kasamatsu, of all people seriously his sempai! Not cool.
They asked him, if he had free time, to at least walk Ryouta back home.
"Yeah," Kise replied, feeling defeated.
Kasamastu looked tense and stern, more than usual. His arms were crossed and a scowl was on his face.
He came and sat near Kise, leaning in and pulling him into a hug. Kise felt tears leak from his eyes and he hugged his friend back, after a minute or so Kasamatsu pulled away and patted his shoulder.
"Let's go."
He hesitated, looking over at Etsuko who was staring at her fingers.
"I-," Kise looked at his sempai, swallowing the lump in his throat. "Can we wait?"
Kasamatsu raised a brow.
"We promised to walk home together," he whispered timidly pointing over to the girls. Despite the situation, Kise could still see the color from his ex-captain's face drain. His fear of girls had no boundaries, he'd been around Etsuko a few times by now, yet he since deflated like a balloon.
Normally Kise would be teasing him, today he didn't have the energy. Kasamatsu seemed to notice, and despite his nervousness nodded his head in understanding and sat back down.
"Hey," Kise called out gently towards Etsuko. Those beautiful eyes, filled with unshed tears made contact with him, and he felt his heart ripped from his chest.
The pain was worse than his recovery from the accident.
"Who's coming for you?"
It took her a minute, her lips pursing as she tried to continue and keep her tears at bay. Etsuko had confessed many times to Kise, how she despised crying.
"Kastuki, and Oji-san," she replied with a sniffle, she shrugged her shoulders causing Rima to sit up on her own. "Saburo is waiting at the house."
"What about you Rima?"
"My dad." her voice was so quiet he barely caught her words.
"I'll wait then. We can all leave together."
It didn't take long, for Rima's father to sweep in. The badge on his chest, created an imposing atmosphere as he stormed into the school. He caused a scene, immediately, which is how Kise figured out who he was.
Rima's father yelled and yelled. Shouting about how incompetent the school officials were, and that they lost three children on campus grounds already. That one was high-risk due to surviving an attack. That they should be held accountable. That the detectives and police force advised the school to stay closed, but they didn't listen.
The reminder of Akira and his own incident gave birth to a deep burning resentment in Kise's stomach. Rima's father held a good point. His parents must have felt the same. The school should be under lockdown.
The only thing that stopped the furious officer from continuing his rant was Rima.
"Papa!" Rima cried running towards him and diving into his embrace.
Soon after, Katsuki and Papa Honda arrived heading straight for Etsuko. Papa Honda looked just as upset as Rima's father, Kise could see he was steaming with pent up rage.
No doubt he too wanted to scream at whoever was in charge.
Katsuki offered Kise a tight smile as he kneeled in front of his kid sister. Ever since Kise dragged himself, Rima and Etsuko to an on-duty patrol officer, it was like she entered an almost catatonic state.
He spoke to her softly and quietly, Papa Honda standing by waiting. Eventually, Etsuko looked up as if just acknowledging their presence and nodded her head.
Katsuki looked over toward him again.
"Who's taking you home Kise?"
That's when Kasamatsu awkwardly stood up and bowed. "S-sorry, for h-having to meet under these circumstances, Sir. My name is Kasamatsu Yukio, I'm a family friend that will be taking Kise home."
Katsuki nodded his head a permanent frown etched onto his face. "Are you driving?"
Kasamatsu hesitated. "I was going to walk him."
Papa Honda sighed. "Come with us boys, no one should be walking out at a time like this." his words seemed to hold a double meaning as the old man shot their school Principal a glare.
Kasamatsu hesitated again but eventually nodded in consent.
After Katsuki wrapped his arm around his sister and herded her from the school, Kise gave one last glance back as they were walking out.
Only to see Rima. She tilted her head sadly in their direction, still being smothered by her father's hug.
Kise could only sigh, goosebumps appearing on his arms.
When will the nightmares be over?
It felt like never.
