Chapter 6: Search for clues
Squall ran to the entrance of Garden to see Rinoa entering. He was never so glad to see her before (except maybe when he woke up in her arms in the flower field). She saw him coming her way with a mix of relief and concern on his face. She waited for him to reach her, starting to worry herself. She instinctively clenched the rings on her necklace, feeling all the concern growing with Squall's approach. When he finally stopped in front of her, he didn't have the time to say a word. Rinoa took her head in her hands and moaned.
"Hey, don't think so loud! You make me crazy!"
Squall felt a bit confused before he remembered Rinoa could easily hear his thoughts.
"I told you to close your mind."
"Yeah, but I wasn't expecting that as soon as I entered!"
She concentrated and closed her mind.
"There."
"If you heard my thoughts, you must know what's going on?"
"You kidding?! You were thinking so loud I didn't understand a word!"
Squall sighed and apologized for looking so concern.
"I need your help. You said you could read people's mind if you concentrate?"
"Yes, if it's needed. Why?"
"Come on, I'll tell you."
They walked side by side through Garden, meeting Quistis coming out of the Training Center on their way.
Squall interrupted is telling and looked at his elder friend with hope.
"So?" he asked.
Quistis shook her head.
"No sign of him or the others. And nobody saw them either. It's like they vanished all of a sudden!"
Rinoa turned to Squall.
"You said there are missing students: four candidates and a SeeD. I could sense in your thoughts it's somebody close to you, who?"
"Zell…" he answered.
"Oh, I'm sorry."
Squall shook his head and turned back to Quistis who apparently was back into a good leader mood. She wasn't shocked anymore and was totally able to handle everything.
"Have you seen the others?" Squall asked.
"Yes, I told them everything and they went everywhere to see if they could find something. Irvine went to the Headmaster's office, Selphie to the Quad and I saw your sister at the library. She couldn't believe it when I told her everything and asked her to question the people entering the library. I saw Seifer too and asked him to pay attention to any suspicious looking person."
She put her elbow in her hand and took her chin in her other, thinking.
"Now that I think of it, your sister seamed pretty nervous even if she was surprise by the news."
Squall's eyes grew bigger and he got angry.
"You're accusing her?"
"No, I just say that maybe she knows something she doesn't want to tell."
Squall turned to Rinoa, not believing his sister could be responsible.
"Seifer is more suspicious than her, don't be stupid, Quistis. But if it can make you feel better, why don't we ask Rinoa to read her mind?"
Rinoa nodded.
"I can do that."
"Alright," Quistis said. "Let's gather everyone somewhere and have Rinoa read their minds. I'll prepare a list to be sure everyone go through it."
Squall nodded just when Irvine and Selphie arrived.
"Nothing," Irvine said. "I warned the Headmaster and he agrees to keep this a secret for most of the students or this place will become a real mess!"
"Booyaka!" Selphie exclaimed with a sorry face. "Not a clue either!"
Squall thanked them for trying and explained them the plan.
"We will gather the students a class after another without telling them the real purpose of this. We'll start with the junior classmen. Quistis?"
"I'll go take the lists."
Squall nodded and Quistis went away.
"Irvine and Selphie, get all the junior to the cafeteria."
They nodded and went different ways. Squall turned to Rinoa, all the seriousness of his face turned into concern.
"Are you sure you wanna do this? I don't know how long it will take."
Rinoa took his hands in hers.
"I'm gonna help you. After all, Zell is my friend too!"
Squall smiled.
"Alright. Then go to the library and get my sister. But be careful: she doesn't look the same that the day we found her!"
"I believe you," she giggled.
"I'll go get Seifer. We're gonna need his help to get control of the cafeteria and be sure nobody enters or exits it without being mind-read."
Rinoa was amazed how seriously Squall was taking his leader job. She stared at him in admiration.
"What?" Squall asked raising an eyebrow.
"Nothing," Rinoa smiled. "It's just that I never saw you like that before."
She put a quick kiss on his cheek and headed for the library. Squall traced her a few seconds before heading the opposite way, to the dormitory.
Squall knocked on the door for Seifer's room and waited. Nothing. He opened the door and took a look in.
"Seifer?" he called.
The room was empty. Wondering where could his old rival be when he saw all the paper scattered on the desk, he left the room. He walked out of the corridor when he saw Seifer coming in, heading for his room.
"Hey, Seifer!"
Seifer looked at him with an annoyed face.
"What do you want? I got work to do!"
"Forget it! I need your help right now!"
Seifer smirked.
"What? All mighty Sorceress's killer Squall Leonhart need the help of the disgraced knight that I am?" he said sarcastically.
"Stop joking around, this is serious!"
Seifer frowned at the tone and gave up his smile.
"Alright, what's going on?"
Squall briefed him.
"What? Chicken-wuss is missing also?"
"Yes, Zell is missing. And I need you to control the cafeteria so that we can control everyone entering and leaving. You just have to make sure nobody except the ones we expect enter it or it will be a total mess!"
"Alright, no big deal."
"Where are Raijin and Fujin? They might give you a hand."
"I'll go get them and we'll meet you at the cafeteria right away."
"Ok."
Squall headed back to the cafeteria while Seifer went to the Training Center where he knew his friends were.
'What's going on in this crazy place? People missing, Squall acting all serious leader, and I got a secret admirer? What next?' he thought.
Squall entered the Cafeteria and saw everyone was already there. Coran too. The juniors were all sat on the chairs and some on the floor because there was not enough chairs for everybody. Squall nodded to his friends and went in front of the juniors, wondering why they were meeting in the cafeteria.
"I don't know if you were told why you've been brought here so I'll brief it to you. You all know Sorceress Rinoa here," he pointed Rinoa standing by his side.
She bowed with a smile to the children. Some were looking curious, others a bit scared.
"She wants to test her powers on the students of Garden," Squall lied. "She's gonna read your mind one after another to see if there are some of you stronger than the others."
A young boy shyly lifted a hand and waited for Squall to give him the permission to talk.
"Does it hurt?" he asked a bit scared.
Rinoa crouched in front of him and smiled comfortingly.
"No, sweetie. Don't worry."
Squall looked at every kid, feeling like a kindergarten animator. He sighed for himself at the stupid thought.
"One after the other. Quistis will mark your names to be sure everyone went trough it. Understand?"
"Yes, Commander!" all the kids said in unison.
Squall took his head in his hand and moaned. His friends giggled.
"Quistis, it's up to you," he turned to Rinoa. "Be careful, okay?"
"What could happen? Don't worry, it will be just fine. And as you said, it's a good opportunity for me to test my powers."
Quistis looked on her list and called the first name on it. A girl got up, not too happy to be the first one. Rinoa invited her to a chair and she sat just in front of her.
"Now you just close your eyes and stay calm," she said softly. "It won't be long, I promise you."
Feeling comforted by the voice and the smile, the girl trustingly closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm herself. Rinoa stared at the girl like if she was seeing through her. Just a few minutes past before Rinoa came back to normal.
"It's over, you can go now," she said with a smile.
She looked up at Quistis and shook her head. Quistis put a check mark on her list and called another name. Rinoa told the next kid the same thing she said to the precedent.
Squall looked at the phenomena a while before his attention was caught to the entrance. Seifer came in with Raijin and Fujin close behind. He went to them.
"Alright, just make sure nobody enter this place until I say so. Raijin and Fujin, you just make sure the kids are not too noisy. Rinoa needs to concentrate but I'm afraid this is gonna take a while so the kids might grow tire of this. I want you to entertain them if that happen."
Not too sure about this plan, Seifer's friends looked at their leader who nodded. The both of them then went into the crowd of kids. Fujin usually cold seemed to change in front of the kids. Some asked her questions about her hidden eye. Raijin on his side was feeling uneasy. The kids were amazed how dark he was, but he didn't know what to do with them.
Seifer smiled.
"I never saw them like that before. Didn't know Fujin liked kids."
"Whatever," Squall said turning to him. "You're gonna do the door job with Coran."
Hearing her name called, Coran approached.
"One of you each side of the door and you make sure…"
"…Nobody enters the Cafeteria unless you say so," Seifer cut in. "Alright, we know, we know."
He went to take his place.
"Door guarding, how boring!" he mumbled.
Coran cleared her throat and went the other side of the door, looking at Seifer.
Squall looked at them and smiled for himself. He still couldn't believe they both had feelings for each other and were not able to tell each other. Remembering he was doing a serious job, his smiled was replace by a formal face as he looked at Rinoa, concentrating to read another kid's mind, and Quistis calling a name after another and putting check marks each time Rinoa shook her head.
Irvine and Selphie were entertaining the kids along Raijin and Fujin. The kids were making fun of Selphie's hair until she put on Irvine's hat.
It took a little more than an hour before every junior went through the mind reading. Rinoa was looking perfectly well.
"So?" Squall asked to Quistis and her.
"Every junior was checked," she said looking on her list.
"You'll have great SeeDs in them," Rinoa said.
"Why?"
"Lots of them were thinking about study time they were losing because of this 'Stupid Testing'," she recited.
Squall laughed.
"How do you feel? Ready for more?"
She nodded.
"It's helping me, in fact. I can get better control of my own powers."
"Good," he looked to Quistis. "What next? The SeeD candidates?"
She nodded.
"Alright. Irvine, Selphie, Raijin and Fujin, get me every SeeD candidates of this Garden!"
Irvine and Selphie obeyed right away while Raijin and Fujin were looking at Seifer for confirmation of this order.
"Do as he says," he told them.
They left the Cafeteria.
Squall went to the door guards. Seifer was leaning against the wall, his hands behind his head and his legs crossed. Coran was standing the other side, her hands together on her skirt.
"How is it for you two?"
"Boring," Seifer said.
"We stopped a few angry students that were hungry. I suggested them to go in a near town meanwhile but I told them to come back after their lunch because we needed them too."
Squall nodded approvingly. He glanced at Seifer. Truly he was looking bored to the limit. The SeeD leader was feeling sorry for his twin. He thought that Seifer would take advantage of the situation to tell Coran how he felt for her until a doubt reached his mind.
'What if it's not her he likes?' he shook his head. 'No, it's gotta be her.'
He smiled to her.
"Keep up the work, you'll got to go through it too."
They both stared at him in disbelief.
"What?" Seifer exclaimed. "You suspect us too?"
"No, it's just to scan your minds in case of details you might not have noticed before but that could be important for us."
Seifer crossed his arms, not convinced.
"Why do you think we scanned the juniors too? They can't possibly be responsible for the disappearances."
The others came back with lot of students. There were more SeeD candidates than junior classmen this year. Squall invited them in and asked them to sit down where they could.
"Why are we here?" a guy asked.
Squall explained everything just like he did for the juniors except he didn't use the same kind of words to explain. Some students were skeptics.
"It's really just a test?" a girl asked. "You're not looking for thieves or anything?"
"Why?" Squall asked raising an eyebrow and bending down the girl. "Have you done something you want to hide?" he asked suspiciously.
The girl promptly shook her head.
"No, of course not!"
Squall smiled.
"Then there's no problem! You better find something to do but try to stay quiet. The Sorceress needs to concentrate very hard."
The students looked at each other, wondering what they could do to kill time but that they could stay quiet doing it. Irvine saved the day.
"What about a Triple Triad tournament?"
Some students took out their own cards and went to the table Irvine sat on.
Squall silently thanked his friend. This should keep them busy for a while. Selphie decided to follow his example and took out her own cards. Raijin and Fujin just watched the games to make sure nobody, including Irvine and Selphie, was cheating.
Squall turned back to Quistis standing on Rinoa's side. She called a name and a girl came to sit down.
"At ease," Rinoa said. "Close your eyes and relax. This won't be long."
The girl trusted the girl and did as she said.
One by one, the SeeD candidates were called and scanned. Each time, Rinoa shook her head and Quistis put a check mark on her list. Some students took advantage of being in the cafeteria to eat something. More than an hour later, there was no more candidates left.
"Something new?" Squall inquired.
"No," Quistis said. "Every students went through it except the four missing ones."
"You wouldn't believe what kind of thoughts I heard!" Rinoa exclaimed blushing.
Squall guessed from her face what she could have heard. He turned to the others already waiting his orders.
"Do you want to take a break or we keep on going with it?"
He looked at them who were looking at each other. They shrugged.
"Let's get this over with!" Irvine smiled.
"Yeah!" Selphie agreed.
"Nothing else to do, ya know!" Raijin said.
"INTERRESTING!"
Squall smiled and turned to Seifer and Coran.
"What about you?"
Seifer shrugged from boredom and stretched himself a bit. Coran smiled.
"I don't bother."
"Alright, then now we'll go for the SeeD members," he turned to Quistis. "Any mission on the schedule?"
She switched her papers and read her notes.
"Nope! Everyone is supposed to be here."
"Perfect! Guys, you know what you got to do?"
They saluted with mocking smiles and left the cafeteria once again. Squall rubbed his sweating forehead with his sleeve and took off his jacket. Rinoa went to him, concerned.
"You should sit down a while."
"No, it's okay. I'm just not used to that kind of operation."
He looked at Quistis who was checking her list.
"After the SeeDs, we'll have the rest of the people: from the simple Committee member to Headmaster Cid himself. Then we'll be done and I sure hope we'll find something."
A few minutes later, the others came back with the SeeDs. There was even more SeeDs than candidates. Squall was surprised. He didn't know there was so much of them. His friends made them sit down and Squall went for his speech once again. He was afraid one student would end up asking about the missing ones. Fortunately, that didn't happen.
Here we go again for another turn of scanning. Each student was called one after another while Irvine and Selphie were entertaining them with card games. Squall finally decided to sit down, glancing at the entrance. Coran was looking his way before turning and tell something to Seifer. The blonde guy turned to him and both of them started laughing. Squall raised an eyebrow, wondering what could be so funny. On the other hand, he was happy Coran finally managed to talk to Seifer and glad Seifer answered it.
Squall got up and walked to them.
"What's so funny?" he asked.
They both smiled.
"Little secret," Coran said looking at Seifer who nodded.
"Secret?" Squall asked curious.
"It's about you, you looked dumb on that chair and we thought you were looking funny," Seifer explained.
Squall frowned, putting his fists on his hips.
"Hey! You can have fun together of you want bur not on me!"
He went back to his place, Coran and Seifer laughing behind him. He smiled to himself seeing they were getting along after all.
The names were called in alphabetical order.
"Leonhart, Squall," Quistis called.
Squall got up and went on the chair in front of Rinoa, feeling uncomfortable.
"Relax, Squall. Just don't think it's me in front of you and it will be fine. Now close your eyes and take a deep breath."
He did as Rinoa said. A few minutes later, she called him to open his eyes.
"It's finish," she said looking at him with a smile.
She shook her head to Quistis who check marked her list once more.
"What did you found?" Squall asked.
"Nothing for our purpose, but a lot for mine. You think too much, Squall."
Squall wondered what could she have read in his mind when another student was called. He went back to his place and waited.
"Tilmitt, Selphie," Quistis called after a while.
Selphie went to the chair and closed her eyes before Rinoa told her to do so. Rinoa scanned Selphie's mind for a while before shaking her head to Quistis. Then it was Quistis's turn. Same result: nothing.
The cafeteria went empty soon after. Squall inquired the news.
"All SeeDs except for Zell were here. Not a clue!"
Squall was discouraged, about to give up. Rinoa put a hand on his back to cheer him up.
"Come on, Squall! Just one more batch of people and we'll know if we did this for nothing!"
He smiled at her. When he turned to the others, they were gone. He looked around for them.
"Where is everyone?" he turned to Quistis for an answer.
"They know what they have to do so they took the initiative before you tell them to."
Not much time past before the last people from Garden show themselves with Irvine, Selphie, Raijin and Fujin to direct them. Once again, Squall explained the situation. He could see from the looks on the adults' faces that Cid had told them about the real purpose of this meeting. Only the Committee's members didn't know.
"Almasy, Seifer," Quistis read on her list once Squall was done.
Seifer looked her way and groaned. Coran put a hand on his arm, making him jump.
"What's wrong? Are you scared?" she asked with a mocking smile.
"Me?" he widened his eyes. "Ha! You'll see if I'm scared!"
He walked to Rinoa and sat in front of her, sulking.
"Calm down, Seifer or I won't be able to read your mind properly," she explained.
Seifer relaxed a bit, granting her a threatening look.
"Don't blame me if you see things you would rather not to see!"
He closed his eyes shut. Squall looked at his old rival, wondering if he was freely letting Rinoa in his mind. After a few minutes, it was over. Squall kept his breath as he saw Rinoa shake her head to Quistis. Squall heard a sigh of relief from behind him. He turned around to see who did that before Seifer speaking to Rinoa catch his attention.
"See? I told you I didn't have anything to do about it!"
He went back to his place near the door, Squall tracing him. Coran asked him something once he was there but he couldn't hear. Then he guessed it was her he heard sighing a minute ago. He wondered why. Was she afraid Seifer would have been responsible?
Other people were called.
"Kadowaki," Quistis called.
The doctor came and did as she was told. Nothing helpful from her.
"Kinneas, Irvine."
Irvine was smiling walking to the chair and Squall was afraid he knew why: Irvine wanted Rinoa to see what he had in mind. Squall frowned when Rinoa shook her head to Quistis, blushing. Irvine was laughing along with Selphie. Probably she knew what he showed Rinoa.
"Kramer, Cid."
Nothing from the Headmaster either.
Raijin and Fujin went through it too. Fujin had to kick Raijin to make him go to the chair.
"COWARD!"
Nothing from them either.
"Leonhart, Coran."
Coran was the last one. Squall was reluctant of letting Rinoa read her mind. He was afraid that she would know something. He just crossed his fingers his sister didn't have anything to do with it until he saw Rinoa frown in her concentration. He walked to her, soon joined by the others. They were all making a circle around the two girls. Coran was looking calm through her closed eyelids. Finally, Rinoa said it was over and once again, slowly shook her head to Quistis.
"Impossible!" Quistis objected. "Everybody was questioned, don't tell me nobody here knows what happened!"
Rinoa was breathing faster like if she just made a big ride.
"Are you ok?" he asked in concern.
"Yes."
"Why was it looking harder to read Coran's mind?"
Coran raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"It was?" she asked.
"Probably the fact that you lived by yourself for so long made your mind stronger. At least, nothing was kept away from me. I learned quite interesting things today."
She winked around. Cid, who was still there, asked for the results.
"Nothing, sir," Squall answered deceived. "We did this for absolutely nothing!"
"You sure you scanned everybody?"
Quistis doubled check her list.
"Except for the five people missing, yes, sir!"
Cid gave the gang a sorry look.
"I'm sure we'll find something soon enough. Don't worry."
He was telling them not to worry while he was himself. He left the cafeteria, concerned.
"We can reopen the cafeteria, now. We don't need to keep it close for everyone anymore."
Rinoa got up and almost lost her balance from dizziness. Squall caught her.
"Are you alright?"
"Just a little weak. All that mind reading exhausted me. Lots of people don't have pure hearts if you ask me," she said glancing at Irvine who laughed uncomfortably.
"Anyway, let's eat something, what you say?" Squall proposed.
It was getting late and everyone was starving. They all jumped up in agreement, even Raijin and Fujin.
"Where is Seifer?" Coran asked looking around.
Everyone looked around too.
"HIDING?" Fujin supposed.
"Not like him, ya know."
Rinoa smiled.
"Lot of things are not like him, but he still does it."
Not replying to the curious glances the others gave her, she walked to the counter.
"Let's eat."
Seifer walked eagerly to his room, burning in shame and anger.
'What if she saw 'it'? What if Rinoa now knows about my love?' he stopped walking, afraid.
"What if she tells her?" he asked himself out loud.