A/N: Hey guys. Sorry that it took so long to post this chapter. Fanfiction has just been crashing on me a lot. I could not check the stats of my stories, nor could some of my readers access new chapters. So, yeah.

The brief period, however, has given me plenty of time to put the finishing touches for the plot of my upcoming Toji No Miko vampire fanfic. I might start it right after I finish this fanfic or after a few one-shots, but we'll see. I don't have anything set in stone yet. Anyway, enjoy reading this chapter!

Chapter 10: Shichinosato Kofuki

After bringing Kofuki to the drawing-room, along with refilling the teapot, Ryosei had hardly closed the door before we got down to business. The first thing our interviewee did was kick off her shoes and put her feet on the coffee table. Putting her hands behind her head, Kofuki leaned back against the sofa, not in the least disturbed of the looks Kanami, Sanae, and I sent her way. Without a care in the world, she only flashed a toothy grin as if neither of us was of the slightest consequence.

"What?" Kofuki demanded as she took out some bubblegum from her hoodie pocket. "Can we get this thing over with already? I don't feel prevailed upon to spend my entire day just chatting with you three. I have better things to do."

When Kofuki said this, I was hoping she wasn't talking about her usual urges to find as many aradama as possible to slay them. Not in this weather at least. Just as I thought this, something suddenly alerted my attention—a foul reek in the air. I could immediately identify the source...even though she was sitting more than an arm's length away.

With narrowed eyes, I asked, "Have you been smoking tar?"

Not making any eye-contact, Kofuki simply unwrapped her piece of bubblegum and began chewing it. She blew a bubble, popping it with disinterest, before snorting, "No."

Maintaining her usual cheerful character, Kanami politely asked, "May we please see your Toji ID handbook, Shichinosato-san?"

Kofuki threw it ungraciously onto the coffee table in response, more concentrated on chewing and blowing her bubblegum. Compared to her fellow Akabane Sword Team members, she showed no display of being concerned that upstairs was a dead body, covered with a sheet. Nor did she show any sign of fear. Kofuki was just the same as she always was as if today was like any other day.

"And now, let us proceed with our little inquiry," Kanami suggested.

A loud sigh of exasperation escaped Kofuki's mouth. "I honestly don't see the point in all this. I saw and heard nothing."

"We will be the judges of that," I snapped.

"Please, Shichinosato-san, could you tell us what you did last night after Hiyori-chan and I left?" Kanami asked.

"Fine...if it'll get ya guys off my back. After that pointless game Kiyoka made us play, Mihocchi and I went to the billiards room close to ten-ish. We did a lot of rounds of Eight-ball. She's terrible at it, ya know? But she kept on whining and saying that she wouldn't give up," Kofuki said. "I wanted to quit after five rounds cause Mihocchi was so bad—and also compared to fighting aradama-chan, it was boring. But Mihocchi refused to let me. Anyway, maybe an hour and a half since we started playing, she finally gave up."

"And after did you do after your game?" Kanami asked.

"I wanted more of that sparkling apple juice, so I returned to the drawing-room. Mirja and Chichie were there, yakking on and on about all those mission statistics that make my head hurt. Honestly, all that stuff sounds too much like the 'educational' crap they teach ya at school."

"Is that why you have an IQ of below fifty?" I asked, sarcastically.

Judging by how she was shooting daggers at me, I bet Kofuki was very nearly tempted into spitting her wad of bubblegum in my direction. A dark purple miasma seemed to be hovering around her causing Kanami and Sanae to sweatdrop slightly.

"I-I'm sure H-Hiyori-chan didn't mean that, Shichinosato-san," Kanami nervously laughed. "Please continue."

"There's nothing else to say. I went up to bed with Mirja at twelve and that's it," Kofuki grunted.

"You didn't leave your room at any time after that?" Kanami asked.

"No."

"Just went straight to sleep?"

"Yeah," Kofuki replied, clearly annoyed.

She swung her legs off the coffee table and went to the side of the room, where drinks stood ready. After grabbing a whole bottle of fresh sparkling apple juice, she came back, popping off the cork and taking a huge swig, not bothering to pour it into a glass. As if that wasn't enough, Kofuki then let out a burp that sounded like something in between what a whale and a walrus would make.

"That was...unnecessary," I said, wrinkling my nose.

"Whatever," was the indifferent response. "Can I go now?"

"Not just yet, Shichinosato-san," Kanami said.

"My God, what is it now?" Kofuki groaned.

"You do not seem very concerned about how a killing has happened in this house, Shichinosato-san," my girlfriend commented.

"Does it matter whether I'm concerned or not? Why should I in the first place?" Kofuki exclaimed. "I never knew Fumiko, and even if I did, I wouldn't have cared much about her anyway. She just seemed like the average filthy-rich kid with nothing to do with precious aradama-chan. A wrong 'un, if you ask me."

She must have noticed the shift in my eyes because she then sat up straighter by a little. "What are you not telling me?"

"On the contrary, Kofuki, she had more to do with aradama than you may have thought. Murasaki Fumiko was a Toji with noro in her. Her family also did extensive research on aradama, when they were still alive," I explained. "Murasaki Fumiko was the commander of the extremist Takamagahara Faction, which had the sole goal of replacing all humans with aradama-fused ones."

Kofuki's eyebrows rose. "So, she was similar to Tagitsuhime's Myouga Tojis or something? Interesting, but not enough to appeal to me. I like playing with real aradama-chan, not people pretending to be ones themselves."

Watching our interviewee carefully, Kanami asked, "What is your opinion of Fumiko-sama now that you've learned about this?"

Frowning a little, Kofuki looked at the carpeted floor with glazed eyes. Her fingers loosely held the bottle making the juice inside slosh around.

"I don't care, I guess..."

"...but?" Kanami ventured.

Taking another gulp of her drink, Kofuki muttered, "Listen, I'm not going to get sappy or oversentimental about anything, understand? And don't ya dare go on repeating this to anyone!"

Kanami, Sanae, and I nodded, reassuring her that we wouldn't.

"I just can't help thinking about Yui and Hana, 'kay? They had it hard ever since they got brainwashed by Tagitsuhime," Kofuki said. "I won't say that I was depressed about it, but even I wasn't comfortable around them when they'd be moping with guilt afterwards. Hana was really cut up the most; she refused to rejoin the team for what seemed like the longest time. Hell-bent with herself, she was."

Then, rubbing her neck awkwardly with a tinge of embarrassment in her glare, Kofuki concluded, "What I guess I'm trying to say is...hearing about Fumiko just doesn't sit well with me."

"Even though you love aradama?" Kanami asked.

"Even though I love aradama."

It dawned on me that underneath all that surliness of hers, there was indeed a repressed sympathetic side to Kofuki. I recalled Kiyoka's previous words about her, "Despite her rough nature, she actually has such a tender heart underneath. One like glass, so easy to break." But now as I turned Kiyoka's words over, I wondered if perhaps there was another meaning behind them.

A tender heart...one like glass...so easy to break... Well, judging by the way she was now, Kofuki didn't seem broken-hearted to me at all. Uncomfortable yes, but not heartbroken. Could it have been possible that Kiyoka saw the full extent of how emotional Kofuki could get? I recalled how frightened she looked after saying, "And for Kofuki-san to have suffered so much...oh, it's too much to bear!" Something about Kiyoka's deer-in-the-headlights look told my instincts that was something she should not have said out loud. But what would have caused Kofuki to get so damaged in the first place?

"Well, there is something about Fumiko-sama that we should tell you, Shichinosato-san," Kanami said. "She was actually the instigator of the attacks on 11/9, which destroyed the two Towers of the International Toji Headquarters and the Special Sword Administration Bureau, along with killing more than 3,000 civilians and Tojis."

"What did I tell ya? I knew she was a wrong 'un in some ways," Kofuki whistled.

"And what do you feel towards her now, Shichinosato-san? I assume I am correct when I say that she no longer strikes you as just some 'average filthy-rich kid'," Kanami said.

"Well, yeah," Kofuki snorted.

She paused, as though ruminating over her next words, debating whether it would be wise to say them. "In my opinion, she had it coming. If she seriously thought nobody would want to get back at her for trying to pull off a coup like that, I'd call her an absolute idiot. Don't know what Fumiko was hoping she'd accomplish by just killing a bunch of people."

"I wouldn't be surprised if she was simply doing it for recognition," I simply put.

Gulping down the last drops of her Martinelli's sparkling apple juice, Kofuki slammed the bottle onto the coffee table. "That's just stupid."

"But we all know that it's true."

Kofuki's fingers were still wrapped around the neck of the bottle. She was now clenching it so tightly that her knuckles are all salt-white. If she had the superstrength of an aradama like Fumiko, Kofuki might've shattered the bottle with her strong grip. She bit her bottom lip with such force that a thin trail of blood managed to escape. She quickly tried to hide it by wiping it away which was honestly pointless as it only left a stain on her hoodie sleeve.

"You feel that Fumiko-sama deserved her fate?" Kanami asked, without any show of accusation.

"Yeah, of course," Kofuki snorted. "Only right that she got a taste of her own medicine. Sounds like I'm incriminating myself, I know, but that's what I think."

"I'd have been more suspicious of you, Shichinosato-san, if you displayed remorse at Fumiko-sama's murder," Kanami answered.

"I wouldn't do that even to save myself from the noose," Kofuki admitted, with a grunt.

Keeping my usual serious face, I said, "Well, certainly someone among your team felt the same and obviously decided to do the good deed herself. Do you have any idea or feeling of who'd have been the most likely to do so?"

To our utmost surprise, Kofuki burst out laughing. "Seriously? None of them have the guts to do such a thing! Oh, whatever. I'll humour you. Let me see...Mirja's too smart to have done it. She knows that murder would only get her a ticket to the slammer. I once suggested cutting down some Tojis, when we were up against Tagitsuhime at the time, and Chichie rebuked me for it. Couldn't have been her. Sniffling, crybaby Kiyoka? Rot! Yui would've just sexually assaulted Fumiko honestly. As for Hana, she would've just been repulsed about Fumiko and her noro-infused Toji ideas. Still, not enough to commit murder. And it would hardly have been Mihocchi...she's just too air-headed."

At the sight of our faces, Kofuki gave another guffaw, before opening another fresh piece of bubblegum. Sanae and I looked at Kanami, who had stopped writing in her notebook, intent on only looking at the girl in front of us.

"You...certainly have some interesting opinions, Shichinosato-san," she said, at last.

Kofuki only shrugged. For the first time, Sanae piped up. Although by the hesitant tone in her voice, I could tell it took her a lot of courage to make the effort.

"U-Um...Shichinosato-san? In the 11/9 attacks, did you lose anyone?" she asked.

Kofuki stopped chewing her bubblegum, shrugging once again. "Wouldn't matter if I did. All I care about are aradama-chan."

I didn't know it at the time, but I learned later on that I was the only one whose ears caught the restrained choke at the end of Kofuki's sentence. Swiftly turning her head to look at the fireplace, Kofuki sullenly stared at the flames. They did an excellent job of highlighting the tears starting to form at the corners of her eyes...

A/N: Next up is Yamashiro Yui! Only two more suspects to go. Who is the most suspicious to you so far? As always, feel free to leave thoughts in the reviews!