The next day the SPR team got up a little earlier than they already had to as they were to pick up Mai and Naru from the hospital on their way to school. "Is it ok for Mai to work today?" Madoka asked as soon as the two teenagers got into the car. "The doctor said I'm fine. Nothing happened the whole night after all. I didn't have a headache, felt sick or anything." Mai answered. Madoka accepted her answer but still felt uneasy. However, it's not like she could force Mai to take a day off and as it seemed convincing the girl wasn't gonna work either. "This whole thing wasn't even needed. You just made everyone worry for no reason." Mai commented under her nose.

The rest of the morning went like the previous two. They got to the school unpacked the equipment, set everything up, and headed to their classroom. Well, except for everyone checking up on Mai every 10 minutes.

"Shorter?" Masako asked as she joined in on the conversation of her classmates. "Yeah, we heard the teacher talking on the way to the classroom." Nao answered as he turned around. "But why?" The girl wanted to know. "The teacher is probably going to tell us once the lesson starts." Kaoru stated.

Yasu smiled as he also was listening to their conversation. "Does this mean that we will get a little time off?" He asked full of hope. "Of course not. I'm sure Naru will find something for us to do." Mai chuckled while turning in the direction of her boss. "We will use this time to do some research. And maybe talk to the principal again." He stated dryly. 'See' Mai thought

And as predicted the teacher informed the class about the shortened lessons. The reason was simply a teacher's meeting. So once the last lesson of the day ended and their classmates left the SPR team got to work. "Mai, Masako go get the principal, John tell Takigawa and Lin to get the vans." Naru ordered. "What about us?" Gene waved his hand at his brother. "Yasu, you got your laptop in your bag, right? You can start researching." The boy answered ignoring his twin's silly behavior. "Yes, sir." Yasu and Gene said at the same time. "And what are you going to do?" Gene added.

"I'm waiting for the principal to arrive." Naru then started to rearrange the desks. Soon after John walked in with Bou-san.

"Naru…" The monk started. "Actually, the teachers are waiting for you. The classes were shortened by the principal so that we could interview the staff." The new information made Naru sigh. "How considerate. That's what we're gonna do. Takigawa, the four of you will handle the teachers. John and Masako will help with the research and Mai will help me with the principal." He announced. "Sure, we can have John and Masako go to the library then to look at old yearbooks." Yasu was thankful for the extra help.

When the rest of the team arrived with the principal they were informed of their duties. Mai took out her notebook and sat on the chair next to Naru. "So, Mr.Ogawa, if I remember correctly when we talked previously you informed us about an incident that occurred in this school." The man's face saddened. "Yes, indeed. To be honest I wasn't the principal back then. I was actually transferred here because of that incident but I'll tell you all I learned." Naru nodded for him to continue. "The poor girl's name was Ichika. She was a student here about 30 years ago and unfortunately got bullied by her fellow student. The news at that time didn't state a reason as to why she would have been bullied. She seems to just have been chosen. No one took her situation seriously, not even the teachers until one day things got out of hand. On the last day of school, right before the summer vacation, Ichika got locked in a room in the gym storage. Afterward, the bullies told the police that they were going to let her out at the end of the day but...because of miscommunication." Mai noticed a tear forming in the principal's eye. "Every one of them thought it wasn't their task to let her out and the next day the summer vacation started...most of them left with their families or simply forgot about that, to them, such an insignificant thing. Ichika, or rather her body, was found on the first day of school. Her bag with her phone in it was found on the opposite side of the door." Mai couldn't believe what she was hearing. They locked her up and left her there to starve? How can people be so cruel? "The girl that found her body was a first year. She became so traumatized by what she saw that she missed a whole year and had to repeat it. Who could blame her? There were pictures published in the newspapers of that room. Words scratched out on the walls. Scratch marks on the metal door. Urine all over the place and Ichika's body in the corner." As the principal kept talking Mai started to feel sick. She couldn't imagine what that poor girl was thinking at that time. To simply knew you were let to die.

"Didn't the family notice her missing?" Mai asked using the short pause in the principal's story. The man shook his head. "She was being raised by her mother only. It was said that her father was unknown. And the mother..well, didn't care for her daughter much either. She would drink, party, and leave whenever she wanted with no notice. This was the case that summer. She left a week before that fatal day and didn't care to even call her daughter. In fact, she returned only after the police called her about her daughter's remains." Mai covered her mouth in shock. She looked at Naru but the boy was unmoved. Stone cold face as always. Then she thought. Maybe he wasn't unmoved after all. After all, what Gene experienced was quite similar. Left to die.

She decided not to ask, not later, not ever.

Not him, not Gene.

"The worst part of this…" Mr.Ogawa started and Mai instantly thought 'there is more?'. "Is that no one was ever charged. Her death was written off as an accident and the students were left with almost no punishment."

Naru finally spoke up. "Is the room we are talking about the gym storage room?" He asked and Mai swore she could hear his voice crack a little. "Actually, no. There used to be a door leading to another smaller storage from there. The door was removed and a wall was built over them."

"Is it the wall the lockers are covering?" Naru asked.

"Yes, how did you know? Could it be that you already found something out?" The man wanted to know.

"Possibly, can we tear that wall down?" Mai looked at her boss after hearing his 'request' that sounded more like demand. "I'm sorry. I'm afraid until you can be sure it's Ichika you can't do that. I don't wanna hurt the reputation of the school again and possibly those who still remember this incident."

"I understand, we will try and gather as much evidence as we can." Naru then thanked the principal and the man left.

"Well, we don't have much. Just the camera moving. My and Masako's story doesn't really count as evidence." Mai commented.

Soon the rest of the team came back. Turns out that our 'teachers' didn't really get much. Most of the staff was replaced after all. So Naru shared what information he got. Well, actually Mai did. She was the one who had the notes. "She is probably mad that no one was charged." Gene added somewhere in between the story. Everyone agreed. "Yeah it seems like all just went 'it happened' and moved on with their lives." Masako said with sadness in her voice. This topic was pretty hard for the team to discuss, obviously. However, Mai couldn't help but feel a little better every time she glanced at Yasu and Gene and saw Yasu holding Gene's hand throughout the whole conversation.

"Now that we need real evidence we will have a lot to do on the weekend. So prepare yourself." Naru said as he signed for the team that it was time to go back to the hotel.

Sorry for the long break...