DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING EXCEPT A PART OF THE PLOT!
Chapter 10 – ECONOMIC SANCTION
"… OK, that sums up today's lesson. Harayuki, would you please distribute the exercise sheets? Oh, and hand in by tomorrow," Miss Aqua announced in front of the class. "Now if you would excuse me, I have to go and get my mathematics books, I forgot them again."
Once Miss Aqua's feet left the classroom, most of us got up from our respective seats. We formed small groups for discussion, although the homework was not meant for group work. Actually it was not that hard, I could manage to do it myself. When I was getting engrossed in my work, Ryutaro spoke at the front, "Hello! Everyone! If you happen to bring 2000 yen today, hand in as class fee. If not, tomorrow is fine."
The phrase "class fee" had two meanings: one, a noun; two, a killer! No matter how high its worth was, it carried lethality. The lethality somehow seemed to be directly proportional to its worth… I could not come up with a formula for it right now, but since no one was ever truly happy to pay any class fees, because the irritation directed at it was inexpressible… Even if there was a formula, it was useless anyway… hehe!
Still, I had better hand it in fast. Being forgetful, if I decided to hand in tomorrow, I would have forgotten all about it. In order to prevent Ryutaro to become a loan shark (but I doubt that… He looks too… a bit of naïve somewhat… Was that the word?), I dug out the money and gave it to him. Job done! Now back to business! Organisation XIII and I formed a group of our own and had discussions. Soon, the work was all done. Oh yeah! Unity is strength!
When Miss Aqua came back, we had Math lesson. All of us engaged battles with algebra. I could still keep up with the lecture, yes. But when I saw the exercises, I had to close my eyes to pretend I saw nothing; twenty pages of exercises, without multiple choice questions, deadline: tomorrow! Holy Bananas! "DOM!" Eh? Demyx headdesked. "Mon Dieu!" Laura fainted and fell to the floor. And Ian was whining uncontrollably, "OH! For heaven's sake! Last time in Eton, I was in Class 14 for Mathematics! Dear me…!"
Holy Kingdom Hearts! But, because of the slogan "Malaysia Boleh" ["Boleh" means "can" or able to do something in Malay], I had to suck it up for now. It was only algebra right? What was there to be afraid of? What could possibly go wrong? Yeah, time to kick some algebra butt!
~~~ After thirty minutes ~~~
… Oh my god… Oh my god! No way! Absolutely no way! I was only at the third page, and factorisations and expansions were all over the place! Holy Bananas! I gave up!
"Ding Dong Dang Dong~~~" See? Even the gods pitied me as well, so they rang the bell for me to get out of this endless torture. The gods still did not hate me! I had to go and save my stomach and fill it with food. I rushed outside, but wha-
"BAM!"
Elastic collision! I fell onto the floor, and my butt hurt… Ow…
"痛いよ~ 誰か?! 本当にばか!" [Translate from Japanese: That hurts~ Who was it?! Honestly, what an idiot!] STHU! HEY! That should be my line! Were you blind? Running around without looking and bumping into people. Instead of apologising, you dared to call me an idiot?! You were the stupid fool! My temper was not cooling down at the moment, so I jumped up. Who was this fool that did not know better?
To my surprise, it was Big Sis! OK… although I really wanted to say sorry… still, SERVED YOU RIGHT! "It's you! That's it! You uneducated turnip head. How dare you get in my way and crash into me?! Oh my hair…" What? She crashed into me so hard, yet she ignored her bruises and worried about her hair? What a so-called Big Sis she was… "What in the… so I ran into the drowned chicken from last time? Instead of staying wet and staying put, you run around like mad and bump into people. Are you that bored?" I said, looking to the other side.
"You…! What are you so cocky about? You got lucky last time, but I wouldn't guarantee that the next time… Ohohoho~~" She was speechless due to anger at first, but then she fired back. See? She was even cockier than me! "You, turnip head, had better apologise to me, or else…" She unleashed her next wave of attack. Take that! "Hey! I have a name, you know! What turnip head… Don't go giving nicknames to random people, you onion head!" I folded my arms in front of my chest, snickered a little and said.
"WHAT?! ONION HEAD?! YOU…!" She was so easily enraged by me. By the way, her pissed-off looks did look like an onion… "Alright now, I don't have time for your crap! Time is gold, so I'll take my leave. Now if you'll excuse me…" I waved in dismissal, and turned to leave. "Hey! Hold it right there!" I only took a few steps and I could still hear some crazy person yelling. Was it so hard to be a normal person?
I purposely stood still and I diverted my ears' attention to my back. Even though her steps were thumping due to her body size, causing quakes of magnitude three on the Richter scale with every step, but they had their tempo; accelerando. Three seconds later, I could not hear the footsteps anymore, but the last one caught by my ear was the loudest. Oh? So the hungry wolf was about to pounce on the sheep? Sure, let us play along and see!
It was time! I ducked immediately and said, "Oops, my shoelaces are loose…" In a flash of the moment, a gust of wind swept over my head. I managed to tame my shoelaces, so I looked up- she was a mess. I turned around and saw the blank expressions on Big Sis's "bodyguards". I won again.
Big Sister transitioned from "A Hungry Wolf Pouncing a Sheep" to "A Carp Leaping over the Dragon Gate" and finally to "A Meteor Crashing onto Earth"! So? How did it feel to embrace Mother Earth? "WAAH~~! THAT HURTS! YOU THREE IDIOTS! WHAT ARE YOU GAWKING AT?! HURRY AND PULL ME UP, WILL YOU?! OUCH~" "Pfft, crybaby. Enough of this, I've got better things to do. Au revoir!" I threw some words at her and I left quickly. That should teach her a lesson.
After stuffing myself with food, it was supposed to be Science lesson. But since the teacher was absent, we did not need to go to the Science lab but to stay in the classroom for self-study. But, I guessed no one wanted to study, and since the teacher was not here… Hehe! The Lucky 7 members gathered around and chatted. We were still using codenames. The codenames for the original five were the same, Xion's was 383 and Lawrence's was 443.
207: "So that was the whole story."
222: "Whoa, there's this epic show and you didn't invite me to it? How sad… *faked a sob, and pouted, which failed epically*"
006 & 013: *Double facepalm*
383: "Ditto. I didn't get the chance to avenge what they did to us days ago! Call me next time when this happens again. I want to add some footprints on them!"
135: "Chill, we will still come across such situations, as long as they keep opposing us."
443: "Well, I guess you pawned her REALLY well, did you?"
207: "Oh come on, you should really see her face! She really was pissed off, a lot I suppose."
006: "… OK… Did she pick that fight with you because of the PE lesson incident?"
013: "Ugh, if it is, I would have ignored her to oblivion. I seriously could care less if I were you, 207."
207: "I don't think so, 006. Firstly, judging her body size, she should be the one that loathes sports, and can't possibly beat someone up because she didn't win a game; secondly, she overreacts whenever she messed up her appearance. Even when she got hurt, her hair was all it mattered. I don't think she would play rough in a game if she behaves like so, let alone come after someone because she lost. No offence, but I think this would be what an extreme version of 222 would do instead."
222: "Hey!"
135: "Haha, truer words have never been said. Anyways, could she have done this out of some other reason?"
207: "Hmm… I wouldn't exclude this possibility, because we didn't get to know her any much better."
383: "Maybe she feared that whatever hidden secret of hers would leak out? I mean, like, trying to keep us away from something?"
222: "But what she's doing now is a dead give-away, isn't it? It's like confessing without pressure, and that would only make her even more suspicious to us."
443: "… Yeah, I agree with you, 222."
"Agree with quoi?!" A beam of soprano shot through us! Whoa… Let me clap my hands twice… Yay! I was not deaf! It was Laura, what did she want? "Bonjour, zoo you want to pay?!" … Pay what? I totally blanked out. "What zoo? The last time I went there was, like, a zillion years ago…" Lawrence was as blank as I was. Xion tilted her head aside and thought, and then she said, "Oh! Was it 'Do you want to play'?" Laura suddenly tackled Xion in a hug and said, "Je t'aime!" [Translation from French: I love you!] Okay…? Maybe she could hardly find people who really understood what she said?
"Oh yeah! What are we going to play?" Axel revealed his playful side again. "La langue des signes!" She said excitedly… La long day seer? What was this, clairvoyance? "Are we going to summon a demon? Seance?" Roxas was confused at this point. "Did you mean 'sign language'…" Xion whispered, we could hardly hear her, but it was a different story with Laura, "Yes Yes Yes! Saranghaeyo!" [Translate from Korean: I love you!] … OK… Maybe she learned a few phrases from Soo-Ji… And also, where did Xion learned her French?
We had fun guessing what everyone was trying to portray via self-invented sign language. In the days later, our class had lessons and recess, ate, did homework and played together… We fostered strong bonds of friendship. But, all these stimulated my memories of my old friends in Penang. Naminé, Kairi, Ven, Sora, Riku, Rita… And the teachers! Mr. Cloud, Mr. Lexaeus, Miss Mulan (aww, I missed them the most), Mr. Saïx *shivered involuntarily a little*, Mr. Marluxia (and his flowers…), Miss Larxene *shivered*, Mr. Sephiroth, *whimpered* Mr. Luxord and LCL (I still remembered her poor pronunciation)… How was life back there for everyone? 9th Grade was not a very relaxing life in Malaysia…
And of course, all thoughts led to that [censored] Fayra. ARRGH! I hated her! And it was all her fault! Saving her equals to never trying to! We were kind enough to save her, and we were the ones to be blamed and punished… Forget it! I might as well drop the topic for now, or else I would die of too much angst.
Everything went smoothly and nice, until one day… "Sorry to interrupt, but would the class monitor of 3-13 come to the office, please? Thank you," a sound came from the PA system. Harayuki then got up and went out. No permission was needed since Miss Aqua was not here yet. But why did I have this bad premonition?
After about five minutes of wondering, Harayuki once again returned to the classroom. Her facial expression was weird to say the least. … Was something up? She seemed to drag her heavy feet to the teacher's desk in front of the classroom, she looked up and watched the somewhat noisy Class 3-13. She started to speak, "Everyone… The school… had imposed economic sanction on us…"
At that moment, it was like thunder slashed through, our class suddenly had their voices sucked away and most of them looked at her with a "WTF" face. "Economic sanction? What in the world is that?" I really did not understand, even Zexion started to scratch his head in confusion. We decided to ask Ryutaro who sat in the adjacent column.
"Actually, the 'economic sanction' here means that every source would be cut off, including water, electricity, Internet connection, canteen food, documents etc. The durations were not fixed, it could be a month, or everything would go back to normal after three days," Ryutaro patiently explained everything to us newcomers. "Thanks, roommate," Lawrence said.
A random thought went into my head, so I blurted, "This sounds like a punishment…" "Wha-! How… how did you… know?!" Ryuutaro acted as if he had seen a ghost. "You… Can you read minds?!" … What? I was baffled at first, but then I bowed and said, "Wow, I was actually that awesome to you? Thank you very much, I'm so touched. I appreciate that!" [Everyone: *Authoress used a thick brush with black paint and heavily scrubbed three thick lines straight down everyone's heads*]
"Don't be such a narcissist…" Axel patted my head with a heavier force than usual. I held where a "bun" would appear, and said innocently, "Hey! I was just joking! I merely guessed it, believe it or not." "If Nemix got it correct, then that begs the question; what did we do wrong?" Xion said. She had a point.
Harayuki, who was at the front said, "The school sent a warning letter, it said… We had owed the school class fees for a month and did nothing to solve it." D. O. N. G! All hell broke loose, everyone disregarded their images and rambled, "WHAT?! WE HANDED THE MONEY IN!" Hmm… It was obvious that everyone here was sensitive to money…
An agitated Anne flipped, "Was?! All my Euros…" [Translate from German: What] Yuanfang was mumbling, "完了… Conversion of Renminbi to Japanese Yen… I lost so much…" [Translate from Chinese: it's done for] "What the heck? I was the first one to hand in the money!" Katra was talking to herself in an unbelievable tone. Just then…
"RYUTARO!" Anne practically exploded, and she aimed her shot at the poor treasurer of the class. Uh-oh… In a swift motion, she took a stride towards Ryutaro, pulled his collar and roared, "HOW DARE YOU, YOU DIEB! TALK! DID YOU POCKET THE MONEY FOR YOURSELF?! HUH?! Just give me an explanation if and only if you want to see tomorrow!" … Whoa. [Translate "Dieb" from German: thief]
… OK, some really random stuff surfaced in my head:
Anne was directly proportional to money.
Anne was directly proportional to time (she was the first to arrive in class every time).
Anne = k (time x money), where k is a constant.
Since Anne really kept her eye on time and money, and there was a saying, "time is money", um… There was only one Anne, so if k = 1…
Therefore Anne = time x money
If time = money
Therefore Anne = money x money
= money squared
And then, judging the situation now, only money could solve the problem. Therefore money was the root of all problems.
Therefore money = √problem
Therefore Anne = (√problem) squared
Anne = problem!
Holy Bananas! She would be a VERY big problem! Should I sneak out and buy Ryutaro some flowers for his funeral?
"C-c-ca-calm down, Schneider-san, I s-s-swear I have ne-ne-nev-never d-done such a thing! Calm down…" Ryutaro stuttered, scared. Anne still did not look convinced. Somebody put out the fire, NOW!
"Yes, Anne, although we did hand in the money and ended up like this, I still trust Ryutaro to have not pocketed the class fees. We have to launch an investigation to find the real culprit to solve the problem. Calm down, please," Harayuki saw the whole commotion and hurried over to cool her down. Well, Anne did calm down. Although her angry looks had not seemed to subside, her hands let go of the collar. Ryutaro slid down the wall like a sack of potatoes. He fell to the floor with his forehead full of cold sweat. His widened eyes stared at the collar before him, where wrinkles appeared due to Anne's force. Poor him…
I did not think the whole thing was as simple as it seemed. I averted my gaze towards my teammates, and coincidentally, they turned over to look at me as well, and their eyes told me that they had the same question as mine. OK… This was REALLY weird… Although curiosity killed the cat, I had decided to get to the bottom of this! I could not imagine the days I had to race back and forth between the school and the convenience store, had no access to the Internet, did everything with a torchlight, had no printed assignments (only handwritten work was permitted and no copies of exercises would be received from the school)… Believe me, it was definitely going to be living hell!
Just then, the forgotten school bell sang eagerly. Right, what lesson were we supposed to have now? Ah! Music lesson! Oh yeah, relaxing time!
I quickly arrived at the vacant music room and searched for a place to sit. I sat before a pearl white piano, my hands opened the white cover and I saw the keys, contrasting in black and white as always. The keys were spotless; it seemed to shine a little. I let my finger slid over the keys from the right to the left. Even the keys were slippery too, like sliding down a slide. As I was approaching the left side, the piano let out strings of sounds that changed from high to low clearly. My finger came to a stop at the last key. The sound ceased, too.
The members of 3-13 arrived one by one, and they sat before their respective seats before a piano (Strange, huh? This school was that wealthy; each student could have their own seat with a piano in the music room). While the teacher had not arrived yet, a song appeared in my head; "Dearly Beloved" from Kingdom Hearts. Sure, it was simple, but it sounded nice and I liked it. (I did not own the awesome "Dearly Beloved" or whatever song I used in here!) I pressed the first note with one finger… "Ding!" And the next one. "Dang~~" I kept the tone soft and was totally absorbed in my work…
Speaking of Kingdom Hearts, the old memories resurfaced again. I sure missed the people back there, except for the idiots, of course. I wonder what would happen if my parents knew that I might not come back again. And the people in the old school? Well, the bad guys could care less about us, but the friends and the teachers… Now the song was getting sadder by the minute. Hmm, well, there was nothing I could do, I could not return at this state, not when the bad guys had the so-called evidences in their hands and could send us all to oblivion. Worse still, my friends would have to take the brunt. That was it, no going back. Think no more, Nemix.
[Authoress: Yo! What were you thinking? You were supposed to be playing the piano, you know.] "Ding Ding Dong Ding Dang Dong Ding Ding Dang~~" I should stop spacing out now. The song was coming to an end as well. I kept the tone very low and soft throughout, so no one noticed what I was doing, unless: one, that person had a very good hearing; two, that person was right beside me.
Ending… I stopped my fingers and moved my hands away from the keys. Mission accomplished! The teacher arrived too. "Good morning, teacher…" "Good morning, class, sit down."
"OK, we're not having lessons today!" The teacher, who introduced herself as Miss Tifa Lockhart [Authoress: Personally, I could not imagine Tifa teaching Music, since she had carved the "kick-ass" first impression in my mind, but if I made her the PE teacher and Yuffie being the Music teacher… that would not bode well, so let it be this way then…] clapped her hands and said. Everyone cheered. Except for the quiet ones, of course. "But, let's have some musical exchange! Everyone pick their favourite song, and when I call your names, you have to present a song. And I mean everyone." At that moment, everyone shut up. Everyone thought they would not have to see those "bean sprouts" aka the music notes for today, but… crap.
Oh well, that would not be too hard, right? I had a strange song in mind: A medley of Roxas' Theme, Ventus' Theme and Sora's Theme. (Just pretend that the boys in these theme songs were not the same as the ones in the story, or else it would be weird… I did not own these songs.) These three songs were kind of easy, but the transitions needed some improvisation. (One more thing, I did not own all the songs stated below!)
Miss Tifa's requirements were not hard to achieve. No matter it was using one hands or both, easy or hard, fast or slow, happy or melancholic, she accepted them all. Soo-Ji was the first to go. Soon, she started. It was Pachelbel's Canon in D. I really liked that one! Next up was John, he played "Country Road". Not bad, and it somehow fitted him well. William played a rather simple one, called "My Grandfather's Clock". But he did not seem to have mastered the song well; he almost hit some wrong notes. But all in all, good attempt.
Ian presented "Piano Sonata No. 11: Rondo alla turca". Its tempo was really fast. Although I could not catch up, it sounded pretty good. Katra played a song I did not recognise, but I was not interested in the original composer, because it was kind of a generic pop song. I was just… really not interested. The random one, Carlos, played the "Axel F"! Whoa… but it was good nonetheless. Zexion was the next, he played Für Elise, it sounded a bit sad, but I still liked it. Axel whizzed through "William Tell Overture". It felt like riding a running horse… Wild…
Harayuki played "In the Hall of the Mountain King", and I almost thought Halloween was coming… Yuanfang also played something I did not recognise, but I could sense the Chinese motifs in the song, not bad. Laura presented Richard Clayderman's version of Mariage D'amour and she was so into it; it was all written on her face… Did she want to get married that badly? Roxas played something I did not expect at all: "The Other Promise" from Piano Collections KINGDOM HEARTS! Whoa… That was so epic… Fitted him well.
Demyx played "Greensleeves", the one which I had heard him playing on his sitar before. He slowed down the tempo this time, yet it still was good. Antonio brought Concerto No. 4 in F minor, Op. 8, RV 297, "Winter" (L'inverno); Allegro non molto in F minor to us. Ah, it was the intense first movement. It felt like getting blizzards in your face. Ah crap! My turn! I started on "Roxas", mind you, I could only play using one right hand, unless my left hand only had to press on one long note or play a very minor role, or my poor left-right hand coordination would mess up everything. Soon, I reached "Ventus". I made it slower to try to portray the sadness. And when "Sora" came, I tried to pull the atmosphere back to a happy and lively one. And finally, I finished the task, thanks to whatever god I worshipped or did not worship. Yeah! Next up was Lawrence. Did he read my mind? He played "Naminé", "Musique pour la tristesse de Xion" and "Kairi" in one medley too! Holy Bananas! After he finished, we gave each other a high-five.
Xion played Sonata in C (from the album "Celestial Mozart for Relaxation"), which was the longest presentation of today. It made me feel like soaring in the vast sapphire sky, playing with puffy clouds and racing with cool winds… When the song almost ended, it was like I slowly descended from the sky. Nice one, I did not know she had that in her. What Ryutaro played, I really did not know. But his hands were really shaky and trembling. There were some parts where I thought should be played with much force turned out to be much softer. OK, later I would have to look for an exorcist to help him, I supposed. Anne ended the whole presentation with "Hungarian Dance No. 5 in G minor", the tone was lively and quick. "Dang~~~" The last note was done. Following that was "Ding Dong Dang Dong~" "Alright, good job. Thank you, class." "Thank you, teacher."
It was recess again, due to the economic sanction, we had to send out the runners among us; Axel, Yuanfang and Ryutaro. (Although Ryutaro was not a desirable candidate, they needed a guide, too…) They would have to buy our lunch at a store outside the school. How sad… Then, the rest of the Lucky 7 sat down and discussed.
006: "OK, let us hear some ideas. How should we start?"
207: "Hmm… Class fees, huh… Could it be from who stole the money first? Or…? What the…"
443: "I guess it's better if we check up on Ryutaro."
135: "Why? I mean, yeah, he's suspicious. But something tells me that he's innocent."
207: "Like what you said, he was still a suspect. There are no direct evidences to prove his innocence so far. It's not that we don't believe him."
013: "That makes sense. Anyways, we don't know where to start, so let's just investigate Ryutaro first. Firstly, we can exclude some of the possibilities; secondly, we can prove his innocence. It's better than doing nothing."
383: "Okaaay… Now that Ryutaro is the target, how should we investigate? Be a stalker? Via Facebook? Interrogate with heavy punishments?"
207: "*Scheming*… Hehe, I've got a nasty plot…"
013: "Oh NO…"
443: "You don't mean…?"
207: "Sneak into the enemy's base at night!"
013: "*Facepalm* Not again?! Do you have any better, more creative ideas?!"
135: "Saw that coming… That isn't even possible! 207, did you forget Ryutaro-"
207: "-Stays in a different room than us and the security is too strong to infiltrate, right? Of course I know that, so that's why I was even more content… You know?"
006: "… 443 is the one you wanted to send on this mission, am I right?"
207: "Finally someone who understands me… And it also saves us time in deciding who we have to assign. Killing two birds with one stone!"
383: "Not bad 207, not bad…"
207: "But, if conditions approve, I would still want to investigate on my own there… Aha! That's it! 443, did you bring your iPad with you to Japan?"
443: "Yeah, I did. What's the meani- Oh… I get it…"
207: "OK, this is it! *somewhat devilish smirk*"
383: "Uh… Hello? Don't smirk like that… You would have freaked a three-year-old out…"
006: "It is just like when we caught Lynn Green… 207, are you confident in this?"
207: "Of course- *Stomach rumbling out loud*"
"What the… stupid stomach… You just had to pick this moment to drum roll! Sigh… I'm hungry…" That was embarrassing…
Just then… "Did someone say 'hungry'?!" Axel hopped in with bags of food on his hands. "Cut the crap! Hand it over!" I lost my cool once I saw food. Axel took out a piece of bread and shouted, "Here, take it!" Then, he threw it to me. Once I caught the bread, I immediately landed a big bite on the nice looking bread… Mmm… How… UBER CHOKINGLY SPICY this was! But I said nothing, shutting my mouth that would otherwise spit flames and pretending like nothing happened. I only… contorted my facial expression a little. He had that cocky smirk again.
Axel…! Very well… Not bad… You had better not forget this! I would express my "gratitude" sometime later… Thanks for the WASABI BREAD! And there were more spicy stuff inside… Ugh…
Later that night, we were in our dorm with our interphones and staring closely at Roxas' laptop. 443 turned on his iPad and was at Ryutaro's room (or rather, their room). He would use webcam to communicate with us. (That was why I was very confident of my nasty plot…) "443, how are things over there? The signal here isn't good enough, I can't see a thing…" I was the first to break the silence.
"Oh come on, it's the economic sanction, mate. I'm stealing other people's signal strength, of course it is going to lag… Patience's a virtue, you know…" The screen did not show his face, but his voice was so clear, not even lagging… "Oh now it isn't! Don't forget that you're now an intruder of other people's secrets and a spy. Ugh, go and check on Ryutaro's table," I retorted and stuck to my plan.
Thank goodness, now the signal was not as bad as before, the laptop screen finally displayed the scene. I could see that the table was neat, and clean as well. Eh? There was a book on the table, what was it about? "Um, 443, that book on the table, go near and examine it please," 383 stole my line. But, hey, we thought of the same thing.
013: "OK… It's a ledger book… So he really did do his job…"
006: "Open it and see."
443: "*Opened* Check with what date?"
207: "Eh… Try the date we handed in the money."
443: "*iPad set aside* Wait…"
383: "What… Why were we facing the ceiling?!"
135: "He's not an acrobat, and obviously he only had two hands… just let it go."
222: "How was it?"
443: "Wait… um, hmm… Argh! See for yourself! Evidences speak louder than words…" The camera was turned to face a page of the book.
207: "4th February… He wrote the entry for cash, below that was 'Class fees'… And double-entry booking. But, it looks odd… Hmm…"
222: "Yo, we're not asking you to check whether his ledger or debit or credit or whatever is correct!"
207: "Of course not, seriously! Anyway, we just have to bring it back and check it out… Whatever! 443, grab that book, take some pictures of any suspicious spots of the scene and retreat. We will be borrowing your iPad for a while."
443: "Oh, OK."
006: "Good idea, if we did not get to see the evidences ourselves, it would leave us with more questions, I do hope Ryutaro would not find out…"
After five minutes, we met outside of the dorm and borrowed Lawrence's iPad plus the book and decided to return them the next day. In the dorm…
"Great, so many pictures… Let's look at them one by one…" Zexion and Demyx were looking at the iPad screen, carefully observing the pictures before them. I was at the study table, studying the ledger book.
I carefully observed everywhere in that book, including particulars and content. Nothing suspicious at all. Did this book hold no clues? Argh… So tiring! I spaced out temporarily, gently running my fingers over the surface of the page. Just then-
Wait! What…? I ran my fingers just like before again. "AHA! A clue!" I shouted, almost falling off the chair. Everyone came up, save Zexion and Demyx. "What? Nemix, what clue?" Roxas asked. "This page was not written by Ryutaro!" I said with much confidence. "Why?" Xion asked.
I said, "Look, the handwriting is very well-imitated; they look alike, no? But the force applied when writing is a different story! Judging the pages before, it's not hard to conclude that Ryutaro applied a bigger force when writing, even the page after has uneven surfaces due to the force. And look at this one, the page after it is drop dead smooth! Therefore, the person traced out Ryutaro's handwriting lightly to imitate it," I depicted with my fingers doing the tracing gesture. Then, I continued, "Also, this person cannot be left-handed. Ryutaro writes with his left hand. If you write from the left to right with your left hand, some of the pen's ink might smear your hand and then the paper, so your handwriting will be more or less blurred."
Roxas said, "But there is this smear you said here… Nemix, so how?" I drank a gulp of water and answered, "Correct, it is blurred. But the pattern is not correct. If handwritten straight from left to right, the smear would appear as lines; but this smear is like a cluster, it is like using some cotton or tissue paper to dab a little of ink and then dabbing onto the paper."
"So… that means, Ryutaro was possibly knocked out at some point!" Xion snapped her fingers and said. I was surprised, but after looking at the handwriting, I also agreed, "… Maybe, but it makes sense. This particular word was written by an unusually bigger force, especially this stroke… Maybe someone knocked him out when he was writing this word." Axel said, "Then who would that be? The strange thing is that Ryutaro himself was seemingly unaware that he was hit, and that someone completed his entries for him. He would have reported it otherwise."
Roxas guessed, "Was he brainwashed or hypnotised?" All of us shot him a "what do you think?" look. "… Er… Hehe… I guess not…" He sheepishly smiled and negated this ridiculous possibility.
Suddenly, Demyx yelled, "Hey! Guys! Come here for a sec!" Now all of us went up to him and Zexion. "There's a poster about the… Astronomy Club." This poster was stuck on the wall near the window. It had a black background and the heading "Matsuaki Academy Astronomy Club", illustrated with some meteors and a planet. "What's so special about it?" Xion asked.
Zexion magnified the picture. There was information printed on the poster. Xion read out loud, "On 4th February, we invite you to witness the glory of stars? Including zodiacal constellations: Aries, Taurus, Gemini and Cancer? Wow…" "And Orion?! Seriously, it's not even a rare sighting!" I was sleepy, and if I did not get enough sleep, I was that cranky, yes. Zexion explained patiently, "Since the Astronomy Club had activities that night, and Ryutaro always writes his ledger at night, that means them, who happened to be at the opposite of the dorm room, would impossibly not know what happened to him!" After his words left his mouth, he pointed at the observatory which was just outside of Ryutaro's room in the picture.
Oooh… Stars, huh? Alright then, I should get some sleep and plan tomorrow! Zzzzz…
The following day was a Saturday, and the observatory was occupied, so we decided to take a tour there. "Say, Nemix, we started from a ledger book to the handwritings and all the way to the observatory for investigation, isn't it a bit ridiculous…? I swept across the page surface for a while and yet I still couldn't feel a thing. How'd you do that?" Roxas draped his hand over my shoulder and asked. I replied, "Nothing really, it's just that I had viral conjunctivitis when I was twelve. My eyes were swollen like two big fish balls and I couldn't even open them, let alone see anything. I was practically blind during that time; I had to rely on my sense of hearing and touch to do things. Perhaps I somehow trained them to a point that they are… I don't know, well-developed?"
Axel asked, "You had conjunctivitis before?" I replied, not minding at all, "Who wasn't sick before? I had a 'scar' on my right eye, thanks to that conjunctivitis…" The brown patch left behind might be on my eye forever… Axel came close before my eye to see the infamous scar. "Hey, it really is there… A patch! At the lower left corner of the iris!"
Zexion said, "Here we are, the activity room of the observatory." The seven of us stood before the door. Lawrence went up and knocked the door. "… Come in!" We entered and closed the door, only to see pitch black darkness. There were star-shaped adhesive decorations that glow in the dark all over the place. There were even all eighty-eight constellations, too. The sunlight was kept outside, and there were many telescopes arranged at a corner. There were three people in here, we went up and greeted them.
"Hi, we are the exchange students, and we are interested in the Astronomy Club, so we are here to inve- I mean, look around… hehe." Yikes, I almost slipped! It would be better to keep our real intentions under cover…
"Good morning, everyone. I'm Awayuki Naoko, the vice president of the Astronomy Club. Pleased to meet you guys," A girl with short hair and a hair band greeted us. I heard her extending her hand for a handshake, but I could not see it. It was too dark after closing the door. "Er…" Roxas' voice hung in mid-air.
And then she realised. "Oh, I'm sorry, I'll get the lights." Soon, the light was switched on with a snap. The whole room went bright suddenly, so we had to squint. "Hello, I'm Kikuchi Rin, a member." Another girl with long hair also introduced herself, "I'm Natsuhara Catherine, you can call me Catherine. Welcome to Matsuaki Academy's observatory, I'm the treasurer." Oh? A mixed race person? Not again… It reminded me of [censored] Fayra Joann! Ugh…
After the self-introduction part, we started the investigation. I asked questions again:
a) Any activities at the night of 4th February: Yes (just to check the validity of that poster);
b) Time: 2200 hours to 0000 hours;
c) Participants: Club members only;
d) Any new discoveries in the sky: Like what was on the poster;
e) Did they see anything at a block in Area E: No, but only a shadow behind the curtains (now they started to suspect my true intentions of visiting here…);
f) Photos: Successfully obtained, to check later;
g) Did anyone leave halfway through: No (what? Would they not feel tired?! As if I would believe that!)
h) When the activity ended, who was the last to leave: The president of the club;
i) Who was it: Unclear (they were the newbies of the club, so they were unfamiliar with the president…);
j) Which of the telescopes were used: Telescopes A and B;
k) Once again, REALLY nothing suspicious?: "Really, nothing…" ~Treasurer; "No, why?" ~Member; "Of course not…" ~Vice president.
Now their heads were full of question marks, I let Zexion do the explaining for me, in case I accidentally had a slip of the tongue. Playing safe never hurt! I started to study the photos, all the dates were on 4th February, and all were in 2010… According to the sequence they were taken, the constellations were as follows: The north (Aries, Taurus, Orion, Gemini and Cancer), the south (Orion, Eridanus, Fornax, Canis Major [Sirius!], Monoceros). All of these were taken at ten. As for eleven, Leo appeared at the north, while a big part of Hydra appeared in the southern sky. I went to check the telescopes. My playful side revealed itself and I peeked through the eyepiece. It was all black… Why yes, of course, since the lid was- "WHOA! HOLY BANANAS! WHAT THE KINGDOM HEARTS!"
Everyone in the room was startled by me. Zexion was the first to ask, trying to conceal his disapproval, "What is wrong with you?" My eyes glued to the eyepiece, and then I calmed down and said, "… Er… N-nothing, actually… I was just surprised as to why there were stars with the night sky during daytime… hehe… Sorry…" Then everyone let out the breath they held for too long in their chests. "… What the hell… That's why?!" Axel calmed down his heartbeat. The vice president came up and explained, "I'm so sorry, but I think it's because of the cover lid of the telescope… There's this practice here; we drew images on our telescopes' lids to differentiate between telescopes borrowed from external sources. If you saw the images, actually it's the pictures on the lid."
OK, which bored person would have such odd practices? Anyway… "OK… er, I really think these photos were very good, mind if I borrow?" I changed the subject to see if I could bring the photos out. Naoko nodded and said, "Sure!"
After finishing what should be done, the seven of us left the scene, I was hungry… I had not had my lunch yet. Now it was almost one in the afternoon. We decided to head out and grab some ramen (remember, economic sanction here).
We sat in a corner; it was out of everyone's sight. This was annoying. If it was not for the class fees… If it was not for the ledger book… If it was not for the handwriting… If it was not for the Astronomy Club… ARGH! Oh god, how irritating! Now, I was facing a whole bunch of photos, but I had no clue! Exhale… Chill, chill… I should have a gulp of the green tea…
One of my hands propped my forehead as support, and another holding the photos. So… what was the big idea? I purposely brought along a planisphere to contradistinguish everything, but the photos were accurate. No progress at all! Agh… Just then, my lunch order had arrived. Forget it, I should eat first, then think later. Look at everyone; they were enjoying themselves. I guessed I had better not bring up this subject now… Lawrence had some matters to attend to, so he left for his dorm first.
After lunch, to pass time, we decided to visit a bookstore nearby. There were different kinds of books in there, from literature to science and technology, everything you could think of, but the mangas were a bit too many… I liked spending my time in bookstores ever since I was a small child. Some people thought I was an alien. So what? Nothing wrong with books, right? I wandered to the "Languages" section, and then to "Astronomy", "Novels", "Manga"… OK, I wandered everywhere my legs carried me. The prices were too expensive for me… Also, I did not understand Japanese very well, I guess my "gain" for today would not be much, eh?
I half leaned on a bookshelf with my eyes closed to give my eyes some rest. Anyway, this place was as silent and peaceful as a library; no noises. I took this opportunity to refresh my mind… But then- "OI!" A voice popped from my left out of nowhere. "WHOA!" I could not respond to the voice directly, I jumped instead. I accidentally bumped into a bookshelf in front of me. Some books fell from the shelf and almost buried me alive. The worst thing? I was hit by a hard-cover paperback encyclopaedia on the head!
I felt everyone's eyes looking at my direction, Holy Bananas… That was embarrassing. Which idiot was it?! I crawled out the small hill of books and tried to stand. My head hurt a little and I felt giddy… I put my hands onto the sides of the shelf for support, and focused my stare at- Xion! "Whaa… Xion, don't catch me off guard again! Good god! Help me to clean up this mess…" Both of us worked together to put the books back, now only the newspapers were left. Due to my giddiness, I had to sit down and rest, and I folded the newspapers up and passed them to Xion to arrange them.
I fished out a random newspaper on the floor. After folding it, I was about to pass it to Xion, suddenly a group of numbers flashed before my eyes. I snatched the newspaper back and took a closer look: 2010-2-4! And shifting the gaze to the words beside it- "嵐の夜" [Translate from Japanese: Stormy night]. But- Right! The planisphere… Why had I not thought of it?!
Xion saw that I was seemingly thunderstruck, so she waved her hands before me, asking, "Hello? Earth to Nemix?" I did not respond directly to her, but a few words came out of my mouth, "嵐の夜 [Pronounced "Arashi no yoru"]… 4th February?" "Huh? What 'Aladdin's no yoghurt?! Oh crap… Did the book hit 207 to insanity?"
"4th February! There was a storm that night! Screw the stars, they couldn't even see the moon!" I talked to myself, standing up but I knocked my head into Xion's. "BONKA!" "OW!" "Wah! That hurt…"
At that time, Axel walked over to us. "Hey, what's taking so long?" I passed the newspaper to him. "Um… you do realise that I don't know how to read Japanese, right?" said Axel, his tone unsure. Xion said, "I don't know what happened to her either, after that encyclopaedia hit her head… yup, we lost her…" I snapped, "OI! Firstly, I'm perfectly normal, thank you very much! Secondly, see the date for yourself; thirdly, I'll translate the words next to the date: stormy night!"
"… Aha! The Astronomy Club lied to us!" Axel snapped his fingers and said. "Finally! Someone who understands what I'm saying! Thank god!" I tilted my head skyward and sighed. Soon, we started walking back to the school dorm. I said, "At first I didn't get it at all but when I saw the date and weather, only then I realised that the planisphere misled me!" Demyx asked curiously, "How?" I put both of my hands into my pockets to keep warm and continued, "I completely forgot that the planisphere I brought all the way to Japan was of the "Only suitable in Malaysia" model, but matching the constellations in the photos with those on the wrong planisphere is purely a measure of dealing with people who never pay to their planisphere specs." "Hmm, you did scream something about seeing stars in bright daylight… do you think the lids they described are used to mislead people into seeing things they would not otherwise see?" Zexion contemplated. It clicked in me and I said, "That… might be why…"
Roxas then concluded, "Then, if the weather was fine at the night of 4th February, the photos wouldn't be the same as these, right?" "Yes," I nodded and said. Without realising, we had returned to the school. I was now lying on my bed, applying an ice pack on the spot where my head collided with the encyclopaedia and Xion's head. Holy Bananas… Why both injuries had to be on the same spot?! Luckily the gods still loved me; so far, I was very normal, so far so good…
"Argh… What to do now? Interrogate the Astronomy Club?" Axel stretched, yawned and said. Zexion thought over things and said, "Nemix, how is your plot coming along? What do you think?" "Mm… Huh? How did you know I was thinking?" I groaned unmindfully with my eyes closed. "You did not utter anything for too long; you must have been trying to come up with something." "Oh… You understand me too well…" I groaned again.
Just then, Xion walked into the room and said, "Guess what I had just found out?" "Beats me… What is it?" Demyx, who just came out of the bathroom, asked. "443 contacted me just now, he said he also suspected the club members, so he returned to the observatory's activity room to look for them, and then they confessed everything: That night was stormy and raining cats and dogs, so the activity was cancelled!" "So? We had figured that out ourselves," Roxas shrugged and said. "C'mon, let me finish! 443 said he overheard them speaking with the president! They said something like 'Oh Cannae ah tally naive' and 'Oh Cannae oh mule sumo'…"
"Wha-!" Axel was dumbfounded. "… Ah! One more sentence, something like 'ellopja a penzt gyujtott osztaly'! That's all." Axel banged his head on the table and said, "I officially declare that I'm SO NOT doing this anymore!" I did not understand it either… What the crap was that? Garbled crap?! It was not even a computer breakdown… Argh! That was it! If it was not for the economic sanction, I would have gone straight to Google Translate!
Zexion kept his cool and asked, "Did Lawrence see the president's face? He or she must be the mastermind behind all these!" "Huh? They were using walkie-talkies! How would I know?" Xion said, lowering her head. Oh god! Oh mum! Oh Dad! Hmm? Dad…? Wait a minute, wait a minute… I suddenly got an idea, and I slowly crept up and sat on the bed. My dad did not teach me anything special, but he did teach me some foreign languages! Roxas saw my trance, and asked, "Eh, Nemix, what're you doing?"
… After three minutes… "There we go…" I said, a somewhat evil grin plastered on my face. "Wh-what is it? Nemix has gone nuts again!" Xion clutched onto Demyx's arm, commenting in fear. "… Zexion, I have an idea, do you think it'll work?" I turned my head to his direction, putting the icepack aside. "… Fire away?" he thought for a few seconds and said.
"What the heck Nemix! What were you thinking?!" Roxas lost control and shouted. "If not, how? Any better ideas? It made me dizzy to come up with these… Why don't you let yourself get hit by a hard-cover encyclopaedia and then a skull in the head, and then try to think of something?" I put the icepack on my head again and lied back down on the bed. "Eh… Sorry about that, for crashing into your head…" Xion said sheepishly. I said, "*Sigh* Forget it, it's fine, just… don't do that again in the future…"
The next day! Sunday! We went to look for Harayuki and Ryutaro. "Ah? Collect the class fees one more time?" They asked in unison. Zexion nodded and said, "Yes. One more time." Harayuki asked, "Why?" Demyx answered, "If we hand in the class fees again, we would clear our debts, and then the economic sanction would be lifted." "But, I don't know if the others would agree?" Ryutaro contemplated for a while and said. "Of course they will! Who would want to be sanctioned anyway?" I said.
"Hmm… Alright, I'm going to inform the class now…" After Harayuki said that, she left. We said thanks and left as well.
Then Monday arrived. We sat on our respective seats, with money in hand, I went to the restroom first. When I was done washing my hands and about to head out, and I turned around- eh? Big Sis again?! Ugh… "Yo, girls! Look! Our friend here is economically sanctioned! How was it? The days without any resources aren't too bad, eh?" I had no time to play with you! I wanted to make an exception and ignore her, but she did not seem to want to let me go.
"Hey hey hey! Wait a minute, don't be hasty! You don't have to be in such a hurry! I know that you guys felt embarrassed living like beggars, and now they wanted to suck more blood out of you… Oh, dear god! That was too tragic!" She was acting like she was a saint, while using another hand to instruct the bodyguards to block my exit. Pfft, what a drama queen! Eh? Wait! "You… How did you know my class was going to collect the class fees again?!" That was unexpected, so I asked in surprise. Did she stalk me again? Observing the shoe heel… White scratches again, so I was right, sheesh! Never learned your lesson, did you? "Ah? Oh… Wait! So what if I knew? What does it have to do with you?" It looked like she did not expect me to ask that, and she almost slipped her tongue. I put my hands on my hips and said, "Well, I guess you're not going to tell me, huh?" "… Of course! Even if I had informants in your class, I won't tell you!" She did a hair flip haughtily and said complacently.
Wait a sec… Informants?! Let us not point it out yet. Instead, I should play some minds games with her for a while. I tried to squeeze out a somewhat narcissistic expression (keyword "tried") and said, "See? Am I cleverer than you? That I knew you won't tell me?" She seemed angry, and retorted, "Hey! You! I won't allow you to be more narcissistic than me! Er… erm, ah! I mean, cleverer!" I stifled the urge to burst out laughing and commented, "Oh? Then why were you in the tenth class? There were tons of cleverer people in the nine classes ahead, you know."
"The only person I allow to be cleverer than me is Ryutaro! Don't you ever think about replacing him, you turnip head!" … Why, out of the blue, of all people, did she mention him? I was about to say something, but she was not done yet. "He helped me a lot! He taught me Hungarian, and he provided me financial aid!" Maybe… he's the informant? What the… NOT GOOD!
Time was running out! I retorted, "So what? I'm not interested! Oh! Almost forgot, thank you for confessing the truth to me…" After I finished, I was going to rush out of the washroom, but her daft bodyguard kept blocking my way. That was it! I thrust my knee up against somewhere… eh… related to Father's Day, if you know what I meant, and I escaped. "HUH?! Confess? … OH [censored, censored and more censored]"
I rushed into the classroom, and they were about to hand in the class fees. Phew! I dug out my money and handed it in, and then I said to Ryutaro who was collecting the money, "Sorry, but I guess I will hand the money over to the teacher." "Huh? There's no need, I'm the treasurer after all, this is my job," he said. "It's nothing… Actually I was told to hand the total sum to the teacher, because the teacher also wanted to see me anyways. So I'm taking over this job!" I said, smiling to cover up the lie, I took the bundle of money and turned to leave.
I only heard him saying, "Oh… OK… Thanks!" He was gullible… I felt guilty for fooling such a naïve person. I did not have much choice anyway. I put the money into my pocket, walking to the door. I muttered to myself, "OK, I'll put this here." And then, I left.
My thoughts were flowing in my mind as I walked. What was the relationship between Ryutaro and Big Sis? I had never heard him mention her. And why did he treat her so well? To the extent of spying for her? What was the profit from such an act? And who was he spying at? Financial aid? What in the world is thi-
"PAK!"
Black out!
… "… Hey! Hey! Wake up, Nemix!" … What? My head hurt… I opened my eyes immediately only to see the cold floor. Maybe I was knocked out. I held my aching nape, getting up. Roxas and Demyx were the ones to call and shake me awake. Wait… If I was knocked out, where was the money?! I stuck my hand into my pocket; it was gone. Oh great… "… Hehe… Hahaha…" I tried to snicker discreetly, but they still heard me. "Nemix? What are you doing? Could it be…?" Demyx observed my reaction and asked. "You're right, it worked!" I replied. Just then, members of Lucky 7 appeared. "Nemix, you OK?" Xion asked. "Never better, and I'm happy as well," I stood up and answered.
Zexion said, "Judging the situation, the plan worked?" "Of course… Those idiots robbed the money and got away, but what they robbed from me was the real Monopoly currency! HAHAHA!" I said, wanting to burst out laughing again. "The real money is in my pocket - the inner pocket of my school coat! They robbed the 'money' from the skirt pocket! Luckily no one noticed the swap, or else I would have been knocked out for nothing."
Axel took the money and delivered it safely to the teacher's office. OH YEAH! Mission accomplished! Now the objective was to capture the mastermind behind this. It could possibly be that phantom-wannabe president of the Astronomy Club…
The school day ended, and my mood was a very good one. No more economic sanction! OLEH OLEH OLEH~ (a very popular Malaysian cheer) I was strolling by a pond outside the dorm. I crouched down and watched the fishes. How I envied them. They were free to swim anywhere, and no one would restrict them. It was evening, the sky was painted with wild orange and red, with some pink clouds on the side, even the pond was dyed a mild orange, making the reflection in the pond even clearer. Lazy Afternoons… Yeah, that was in my mind at that moment, (I loved it, but I did not own it) like what Roxas told me about Twilight Town, his town of birth.
I was so engrossed in watching the reflections, suddenly I saw a black figure flashed behind me via the reflection in the pond… I did not have eyes behind my head. I sprang up and spun around. No one there? Was I hallucinating? I was about to agree with the latter when some rustling could be heard from my left, like something fell into the bushes. I followed the noise and turned my head to said direction, and guess what I saw?
"…?! Monopoly money?! You…!" I was so shocked and I managed to spit out a few words, looking up- a cloaked figure! It had a long black trench coat, all black from head to toe, I could not see their face, but they seemed to want to pick a fight with me and said, "You think you're very smart, huh…" And then it turned and ran away. What was I waiting for? Give chase! I sprang into action and ran after it. What nimble movements, how could it run that fast in a long bulky trench coat?!
Chasing, chasing, and more chasing, the sun set without me realising, now I was like surrounded by a layer of black muslin. I could hear the footsteps, "Tap Tap Tap" they rang in the dark school corridors. The cloaked figure was still in front of me, but its speed decreased over time significantly. Ha! Tired, were you not? But, I was not any batter… It turned around a corner, and I followed; it jumped over the wall, and I also jumped. Some time later, it finally hid itself in a room, and closed the door. Got you!
I kept my back against the wall beside the door, and observe for any movements while regulating my breath. This was tiring. After that, I tiptoed to the door, taking in a deep breath… HERE I CAME! I quickly kicked the door open and barged in. I was in my ready-to-fight pose, but it was pitch dark inside, nothing could be seen. As I was confused, the door shut itself. Then I heard the sound of door locking. Oh crap! I was locked in. I fell for a trap! Then, a voice boomed.
"HAHAHA! How's that? You fell for it!" I calmed myself down and retorted, "If you've got the guts then fight me one on one! Don't just hide there and act mysterious! Not cool!" I finished my words and was about to walk forward, suddenly I felt a cut on my knee, it hurt like hell and I staggered backwards, but then I heard some fabric being slashed open. Holy Bananas! I panicked and turned around, only to cut my left cheek. I could feel the warm fluid seep out of the fresh opening on the skin, oh crap!
I dared not move a muscle, a sweat dripped from my forehead to my chin, but instead of falling straight to the floor, it fell on something else and let out a weird "Pik! Pik!" sound. Was this…
"… Piano wire…?!" I suppressed my surfacing fear and said. But my voice somehow sounded like a squeak. "Very well… But it took three cuts for you to get the answer. It's not like you, you know, hehe…" Wait! How did this whoever-the-hell-it-was know I was cut three times? I did not even scream out of pain, and it was dark, even the windows were tightly shut. Unless… A night vision goggle was used! But then again, what did they mean by "not like me"? Maybe this person knew me. But I could not recognise the voice. Dang it!
I remained in the same pose, and it was tiring. And I could not sit down, because there seemed to be some glass wool on the floor… I assumed the whole room was filled with draping and interlocking piano wires and littered with glass wool! Anyway, I was not claustrophobic, so no need to be afraid. Yet.
"Hmph! You idiotic fool, don't ever think about getting out alive, just be good and stay here until you take your last breath!" The voice boomed again, with more malice. Anyway, since I could not move anyway, why not buy myself some time? "Ah… You're right, I couldn't get out anyway, so why don't you let me sit down? How's that? You won't lose anything." "What? Are you tired? Ha, useless piece of waste. How about this…" Without waiting for my response, I felt a string of piano wire stopped right at my neck where my carotid arteries were, anything stupid I did would send me to the gods… Gulp! "Go! Follow my orders, or die on the spot!" Back up? I slowly backed up. I moved exactly as told; directions and how many steps to take and all that. I moved and stopped intermittently. Finally, my back touched the cold wall. I slowly descended and sat down safely.
I felt the presence of the piano wire on my neck was gone. OK, this mysterious dude here knew how to control them… I slowly and cautiously fumbled around with my fingers as secretly as possible. On my left was wood… A cupboard? On my right was some icy cold metal sticks, what was that? "Excellent! Now, be a good girl and stay there… until you die!" After the voice died down, I heard rocks rubbing against one another, which roared very loudly, some footsteps, and the same rock noise and a sickening "BAM". Silence reigned once again. Oh god… This room had some mechanism installed and there was an additional burnt smell!
Burnt smell… That meant Home Economics Room was next to this room! There was also a smell of cakes. Okay… What in the world was beside the Home Economics Room? … Argh! I could not recall the school map!
I was so mad I pushed the big wooden cupboard down. KABAM! TOINK! TWANG! BOINK! TOI~~~~! Oops… The cupboard fell, and tore some piano wires. Haha! Lucky me! I moved to the left to where the cupboard once stood. I waved; no piano wires were there anymore. Oh yeah! I pushed and pulled the cupboard back to its original position (it was not that big anyway), fumbled for the drawers, opened them and found a torch. I did not think the gods hate me…
Switching on the torch… The whole room was full of piano wires, but luckily only a speckle of glass wool here and there. My god… I shone the torchlight everywhere; I was in the observatory! I should have known it from the metal sticks possibly being telescope tripods. In the next hour, I got rid of all the piano wires using a scissors found in a random corner. Exhausting… The mysterious person would go nuts if they came back and saw this… but who cared?! However… how should I escape? I could not escape through the locked door. I did not know how to activate the mechanism like that person did… Even if I opened the window, I would not dare to jump out; 500 metres straight to the ground, would anyone dare? Hmm…
However, there was a metal bucket, a scissors, a big can of petrol, a sink, a long rubber water tube, telescope, matches and papers. Scheming… Hehe… I had a nasty plot now…
[Switching to Lucky 7]
"Nemix's interphone and GPS device are here, so how are we supposed to contact her?" Axel lost his cool and yelled. Zexion was pacing up and down, muttering, "Must have gotten into trouble…" Xion said, "I know she was strolling near the pond … Where did she go…?" Demyx barged into the room, startling everyone. He said, "Look! This was beside the pond!" Everyone looked- Monopoly currency! "Wasn't this used in Nemix's nasty plot earlier ago?!" Roxas' eyes widened and said. "… Something is up, 443, how is the search?" Zexion stayed calm and asked via interphone. "No sign of her…" 443's voice came in.
Zexion said, "Could it be that… the mastermind has made its move?!" "This…! Ugh!" Axel was at a loss of words and sighed. Xion asked desperately, "She'll be OK, right?" "I don't care, if I don't find Nemix tonight, I'm not going to sleep!" Roxas, who used to think before acting, announced firmly, and he ran out of the dorm.
[Back to me…]
I cut the hem of my skirt with the scissors. This damn skirt was way too long and was an obstruction to my movements. Besides, it was torn earlier anyway. I used the fabric to wrap my knee (of course I had ensured the cloth was free of glass wool). I then half-filled the bucket with petrol, and I placed the papers on top of the cupboard. Next, I connected one end of the rubber tube to the water tap of the sink and I placed the other end on the floor. The glass wool on the floor was swept out through the slit at the bottom of the door, and the window was opened. I disassembled the telescope and took out the eyepiece lens. NOW, THE PLAN!
I ignited all the matches, and threw some to the papers and some to the cupboard, and I proceeded to open the water tap to its maximum! I then hung the bucket high up at where the water could not reach and threw the rest of the ignited matches into it. Now, the wooden cupboard turned into a flaming cupboard. Soon, fire emergency water sprays were activated, and the water rushed very rapidly. I used whatever I could find to block the bottom of the door, like wood planks, wooden board and cloth. Smoke was everywhere, and the water never ceased. Soon it was flooding.
After about five minutes, the water level reached half a centimetre below the window. But the increase in water level slowed down. Not yet! I waded to the door, and placed the eyepiece before the light from the torchlight, and light rays focused onto the door, then some light smoke came out. OH COME ON! The smell of petrol was too strong! Finally, the water flooded out of the window! Let us hope somebody would notice that!
But, soon the torch ran out of batteries… The smoke gradually drifted away, the water spray stopped eventually too. Now, only the water from the sink was flowing. The ends of piano wires dangling from the ceiling were waving in the water with the current. There was no way no one would not notice such a big racket I caused. I took a glimpse at my watch: eleven at night, OK… Lucky 7 must still be looking for me?
Just then, something unexpected happened…
[Back to 013 and 383]
They were gasping for air near a wall at a field. "*Gasp* So tiring… where… the heck… is… is Nemix?!" Roxas put his hands on his knees and panted. He was sweating profusely, but Xion was not any better. "What the hell… Where would she be? We only found… Monopoly… money, what would… that prove?" Suddenly, Roxas smashed his fist onto the wall and shouted, "For crying out loud! 207! Just come out from whatever freaking place you are in!"
"FWOOSH!"
"Whoa!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"
Roxas was half wet, he jumped aside and yelled, "What the flip! Why is it raining out of the blue?!" "… Er… It's not raining… Look!" Xion tilted her head skyward, pointing above the wall. Roxas looked to said direction. Water was pouring out of a window! "Isn't that the observatory?!" Roxas exclaimed. Xion said, "Who did this…?" Roxas thought for a while, then he snapped his fingers and said, "Ah! Nemix! She's in there!" "Why?!" Xion asked, surprised. "I understand her too well, this should be one of her nasty plots… Also, look at this," he said, placing a Beijing Olympics Mascot keychain on his palm. "When the water hit me, this hit my shoulder. She carries this with her all the time, so it must've dropped from the top." Xion, "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" The two left the scene.
[Back to me]
"How dare you! You idiot! Look what you have done!" The mysterious figure reappeared, but with the help of the moonlight from outside the window this time, I could make out the whole person, it was the cloaked figure from before! It appeared from a hole higher than the water level. When it saw the ruckus, it screamed uncontrollably. I fished out a wooden plank from the water and readied it as a weapon. A fight to the death!
I retorted, "What do you expect? You thought I would stay here and wait for my demise?! In your dreams!" Now the water level reached five centimetres below my armpits. The cloaked figure quickly approached, but it unfortunately lost balance and fell into the water, a huge splash occurred. Maybe its body size was huge; easy to take down… But I did not expect it to emerge from the water immediately and in a swift motion it turned off the water tap! The water supply was cut off… Crap…
I retreated to a corner, and used the wooden plank to poke and push the obstacles stuffing up the slit at the bottom of the door. Come on… It was coming at me! But the water resistance slowed it down. Three, two, one! "Kap! Kabook!" The obstacles were removed. The cloaked figure was drawn away by the water current against its will. KABONG! "NINCS!"
Wow… I had never expected this would happen, though… The door was busted down, water spurted everywhere… What a big racket we had here… The bottom door slit caused the pressure of the water flowing out of the hole to decrease due to the increase in velocity of water, and the surrounding greater water pressure (including atmospheric pressure) caused the object to flow (or in this case, gush…) towards the door. I did not expect the door would be crushed by the cloaked figure… Anyway, I would take it as a success. Bernoulli's principle worked!
I was gushed outside as well, but I held onto the side of the wall. When the water level subsided, I proceeded to capture the cloaked figure. I pulled off the fabric I used to wrap my wounds to tie up its limbs. CAUGHT YA! I crossed my arms before my chest and said, "Never guessed that I would catch you, huh… Onion Head?"
"Darn it… How did you know it's me?!" The person roared with rage and shock. They struggled with all its might and shook off the hood of the cloak, and their true identity was revealed: Big Sis! "First of all, the most obvious one is your body size. In that total darkness before I truly could not see anything, but it was clear as day once the window was opened. Secondly, you said this before *air quoting* 'Very well… But it took three cuts for you to get the answer, it's not like you, you know'. This sentence told me you knew who I am. Thirdly, you used too many foreign languages, especially Hungarian, i.e. the phrase 'nincs'. Fourthly, *snicker* you just admitted that you're Onion Head…" I observed her reaction. She was so mad she was only able to spit out a few words, "What Onion Head [censored]..."
"Answer truthfully, why did you want to rob the class fees?" I directed my gaze straight into her eyes and said in a serious tone. "Wh-what class fees?! I'm warning you, don't simply accuse me!" She used an "I-hate-your-guts" tone to retaliate, forcing her eyes to glare back at me, pretending that she was not lying. Hmm, this was the first time I encountered this situation. I asked, "How come you never noticed one of your hands had a strange smell and mark?" "Hmph! You tied me up, how would I know?! Dimwit!" As if I was going to fall for that; to release her and let her get the chance to escape. Just then, Roxas and Xion arrived at the scene.
"Nemix! If you hear me then answer- whoa…" Roxas halted, dumbfounded at what he saw. Xion bumped into him by accident. "Ow… Hey! Roxas! Don't just execute emergency brake for no reason! You- whoa…"
"Get over here and hold her down!" I immediately called out for help. After a minute… I placed a firm grip onto her hand and pulled up her sleeve a little, and a thick silver line was seen on her hand. "While you're robbing the Monopoly money from me, your hand accidentally touched the ambushing marker pen in the same pocket…" I purposely stopped at midsentence to gauge her reaction.
"… Hmph! You got lucky! I'm impressed by your plan. But, how did you, an idiot, know that I'm going to steal the class fees?" she asked after she went silent for a short while. I replied, "When you were talking to your underlings, of course…" "Quit the act! That-" "-time was a boy who eavesdropped on your conversation… right?" I said, my back against her, without wavering of emotion. "… Pfft! Know-it-all… 何をばかな…" [Translate from Japanese: What a fool…] "Excuse me, you are the fool!" I turned and pointed at her, telling her to shut up.
"Eh Nemix, have you mistaken? Wasn't 443 the one who eavesdropped?" Xion whispered to me. I smirked a little and said, "Of course, it was him, but when you came back to inform us the news, didn't you say that there were a lot of 'alien languages'?" I had just finished, and suddenly another voice popped out of nowhere: "DAMN RIGHT! WHAT WERE THOSE?!"
"WAH!" I almost jumped out of my skin, I turned around to see Axel and the rest of Lucky 7. "Damn it, Axel! Luckily we're not in the library or the bookstore…" Thinking about the incident days ago… I almost shuddered. Yikes. "Anyways… She said: 1) Oh Cannae ah tally naive; 2) Oh Cannae oh mule sumo; 3) ellopja a penzt gyujtott osztaly. Translation: 1) Japanese: お金が足りない (Not enough money); 2) Japanese: お金を盗もう (Let's steal money). For the third sentence, because she discovered Lawrence's presence, so she changed to Hungarian. 'Lop' means 'steal', 'penz' is 'money', 'osztaly' is 'class'. Ring any bells?"
Axel's jaw almost hit the floor. Roxas exclaimed, "How nice of you Nemix. You knew the translation from the start and you didn't tell us!" "It doesn't matter even if you find out now. I just don't understand why she changed language, since we also don't understand Japanese very well. There must have been some other better reason, right?" I moved closer to Big Sis and said. "Get away from me! Hmph… Correct, there is another reason… he knows Japanese!" Everyone else apart from me, herself and Lawrence were shocked.
"Good one, you did know Lawrence is a fan of anime and manga, so he knows the language better than us, not bad…" I slowly nodded and said. "She… She's a stalker!" Demyx blurted out of shock. "No… It's the informant… It's Ryutaro, isn't it? He told you all of these, right?" I shook my head to negate Demyx's comment and said, staring at Big Sis all this while.
"… Looks like I can't hide anything tonight anymore…" Now, she stared at the floor. "That idiot, Ryutaro, he was too gullible and honest. I wanted him to create a misleading clue but he failed. The whole ledger book was a fake, and was seen through soon enough. He also forgot to take down the poster. Luckily the members didn't sell me out… I also forgot to tell him to hand in the class fees himself… *Sigh* He was hard to manage," she said slowly, losing her big-bully façade and arrogant tone. Tap…Tap…
"そ… そうか? 僕のこと 利用していたのか…" Whoa! Who was that? We turned to the source of the voice. We only saw a gloomy (or glum, should I say?) Ryutaro standing there, hurt. [Translate: Is… Is that so? You were using me…]
"り…龍太郎兄さん!" [(Brother) R… Ryotaro!]
"…"
"なぜ、なぜここに いるの?" [Why, why are you here?]
"…しんこ、何を 言ってるんだ?!" [Shinko (her name), what are you talking about?!]
"そんなこと じゃない、私-" [It's not like that, I-]
"どうして? あなたには 僕の妹だ、なぜそれを…" [Why? You're my sister, why did you…]
"…" She seemed to be on the verge of tears.
"… *Suppressing something* あなたを 止めるべきだった…" [I should've stopped you…]
"… なに?" [… What?]
"もう助けることは できない。間違っていた… I'll leave her to you guys." [I cannot help you anymore. I was wrong… (And you knew the rest, right?)] After he said that, he turned to leave. I stopped him. "Wait! You're just going to ignore her from now on?" I caught his hand and said. He stared blankly ahead. I let go of his hand. Zexion commented, "Nemix had a point. Why did you want to give up on her?" I also asked, "Why is there this so-called 'financial aid'?" "… *Sigh* It all started two years ago…"
[OK! The Authoress had to say CUT again. No time for dilly-dallying! Long story short: two years ago, Ryutaro and Big Sis were in 7th Grade, and Big Sis fell in love with this guy, and despite the numerous times he had lied to her, she was too blind to see that. And that con man owed some loan sharks a large sum of money, thus he left her with this mess and moved to an unknown country. Big Sis had to get a part-time job to pay off the debts. But she was afraid of her parents finding out (despite living on campus), so she formulated an alternative. Ryutaro took pity on her so he reluctantly agreed to help. Back to normal! Hasta la vista, guys!]
"So that's why…" Roxas nodded his head slowly and said. "Judging this situation, the debts are still not cleared, and the school still knows nothing of this, right?" Zexion concluded. Big Sis said, "Yes… The deadline is almost up, they would… would…" At this point, she shivered involuntarily, as if remembering some bad memories, really bad memories. It was best not to simply open any wounds… Those who suffered severe mental stimulation should not be messed with… Proceed with caution.
"Since you cannot solve this on your own, you could have just sought help from your parents or the school. Why do you have to get yourself into this predicament?" Zexion asked. "No! I can't! … No… If the others knew about this, I wouldn't be able to be with him again… He… will return… Yes… He still cares about me in his heart…" Big Sister screamed at first, and then mumbled to herself like she was about to go unhinged… No way, seriously… Up to this point, she still naively believed that the bastard would change his mind?! I wanted to give her a wake-up punch, suddenly-
"SMACK!" The sound reverberated in every corner of the corridor, sounding even scarier especially at a quiet night like this. Axel swiftly shot out a palm and slapped her across the face. We were petrified. Axel tried his best to suppress his temper that was losing control, and angrily huffed, "For Kingdom Hearts' sake! Right now you still so naïvely think that con man would return?! Are you daydreaming? Obviously, he was just using you to repay his damned debt! He might just be having the time of his life out there, you know. You thought he really loved you?! Just wake up already! You're fooled all this time! Got it memorised?!"
Whoa… I swore, since I had known Axel, this was his first time to actually lose it… Sure, he was always hot-headed and a little impatient, and mayhap a little bad tempered, but it was way over this time… Big Sis regained her senses a while later and used the icy cold back of her palm to touch her burning cheeks. "I was being used… Fooled?" she whispered, very shocked indeed. "Eh… yeah, you cannot slip deeper into this. It's not good for anyone…" Demyx watched his choice of words and smoothed things over. Roxas dragged Axel aside for him to cool off.
Honestly, I really did not want to witness this annoying overdramatic soap opera anymore. Also, when I was locked in the observatory, she could have ended me right then and there (knock on wood), but she merely used the piano wires to force me to a corner to sit down… I guessed that was the only solution… so I could "repay her kindness". I contemplated a bit, and stated, "Report to the principal straight away." "… Huh?" Everyone said in unison.
"I think reporting to the principal would be the best. Firstly, the students under her watch had problems, so she should do something. Secondly, I trust her judgement," I cleared my throat and explained. Zexion agreed, "I agree with Nemix. This is the best solution by far."
Ryutaro hesitated, and said, "OK." Big Sis was weeping silently now. We left Ryutaro to console her, since the rest of us were outsiders… The next day…
"… I understand, I will look into this. Remember, keep it a secret for now," Miss Aerith said after understanding the whole situation. "OK," we agreed. "So, now that one of the school bullies is caught, I will take further necessary actions. Thank you for your help, or else god knows how many more classes will suffer from the economic sanction," she said. Zexion replied, "It is nothing, this is our job, not to mention that this may not end just yet…" Huh?! No way, seriously? The principal nodded and said, "Yes, I understand. I still have to count on you guys for some time. Really… どうも ありがとう ございました。" [Thank you very much.] And then, she bowed. Holy Bananas! We followed suit. "どう いたしまして…" [You're welcome…] I said.
Five days later… "OI! Zexy! The newspaper you wanted is here!" Demyx, who just came back from buying the newspaper shouted from outside, walking into the dorm room. Zexion sighed in defeat, grabbed the newspaper over and then looked at the headlines… I curiously peeked over his shoulder from his back to see. "Holy Bananas!" I exclaimed. Now, members of Lucky 7 came over. Headlines translation: 17 Year-old Japanese Drug Mule Caught in Burma, Drug Trafficking and Underground Bank Organisation Arrested. "Oh god… Is this the 'necessary further action' the principal mentioned? And this is from a newspaper you wanted to read on a whim?" Axel asked. "… It really is by pure instinct!" Zexion's eyes widened in surprise and uttered. (P.S. That con man was later revealed by Big Sis to be a drug trafficker and was fifteen two years ago.)
Xion "patted" my shoulders and said, "Luckily we have you in our team, 207. If we didn't have a nasty plotter like you, who knows what's gonna happen?" Agh… Why did anyone who "patted" me give me internal injuries…?! I said, "383, being a nasty plotter isn't as easy as you think… You have to deal with glass wool, piano wires, petrol, fire, mud, explosions, darkness, claustrophobia… Oh, also-" "OK! Eh… I had to… um, return the books at the library! Bye!" She ran away. "Nemy, do you have to make it to sound so scary?" Demyx placed his hands on his hips and said. Well, this was MY life as this nasty plotter…
~ CHAPTER 10 FIN ~
TO BE CONTINUED
Muahahaha! The too long Chapter 10 was done! Really, it is too long, and it took a lot of brain power to translate them all, especially the foreign language part… Since my first language is not English, let alone the others… Yeah, I like Mandarin better… *nod nod* Anyways, I'm outta here! Gotta get some sleep. I need to rest… Bye!