Chapter 006: Red Writing

Robin unfolded the parchment, careful not to cause a rip or tear. Oh. There was nothing on it. 'That's strange...' she thought. Puzzled, she gently refolded the piece of paper, still careful not to damage it. Even though there was nothing there, a gut feeling told her to keep it. 'Now Amon will really think I've lost it...' she thought to herself, giving a little laugh. Slowly placing some snow on her bleeding wrist, she gasped and quickly withdrew her hand. Too cold. She decided not to apply it to her wound just yet. Filling a small plastic bag that Karasuma had given her, she then headed back into the building.

"Here, let me see it.", Haruto demanded after Robin mentioned to the group how she had found a blank piece of parchment out in the courtyard. "Sure. Only I don't see what's so fascinating about it. It's only a blank piece of paper.", Robin replied, still busy tending to her wrist. Karasuma had fetched a first aid kit from one of the lower level floors while Robin was gone, so her and Robin had since busied themselves tying up the wound in an ace bandage. Taking the piece of parchment from Robin, Haruto slowly unfolded it. Suddenly, a smirk spread across his features. "Robin. I hate to tell you this, but you must have unfolded it the wrong way."

"What do you mean?" she replied, clipping the bandage into place. "Yeah, Haruto... is there really an incorrect way to unfold paper?", Michael added with a grin. Laughing even harder now, Haruto held up the parchment. Writing, written in some kind of dark red ink, could be seen as clear as day. "But...I...it wasn't...", Robin sputtered, now completely and utterly embarrassed. Face turning bright red, she just sat there for a few seconds, staring at the paper while the others laughed hysterically. "First, you find what you consider a 'blank' piece of paper. Now, it turns out that there really is something written on it. Why you brought it in when you thought it was blank is beyond me.", Amon said with a smug look on his face, grinning. If they had thought Robin couldn't become any more red in the face, they were wrong.

"Well, what does it say!", Doujima demanded impatiently, rolling her eyes and flipping back her sandy blonde hair. All turned to face Haruto. "Um... I'm not quite sure. Its really wet from the snow, and the ink got smudged in a lot of places.", he said, displaying to everyone his hands smeared in red. Doujima began muttering words along the lines of 'idiot' and 'incompetent', but Karasuma went over to look at the parchment herself. "Here, let me try to read it." As soon as Karasuma picked up the piece of parchment, her eyes grew wide.