I peeked out from around the corner and began scanning the school's courtyard.
Second-, third- and fourth-period had gone by without a hitch, so all that was left was lunch and then two more periods. After that, I could go home and put an end to this miserable day at last. However, that still left a few hours before school ended, a few hours for everything to possibly fall apart. I knew I needed to stay vigilant.
Throughout the courtyard, hundreds of students chatted away at various benches and tables. Though, like most days, many of the youkai students had chosen to take to the roofs of the school to enjoy their lunches, the benefits of being able to fly and all that. I mean, some humans could fly too if they were willing to learn and had the magical ability, but almost all youkai were seemingly born with the power to levitate.
As I said, youkai were weird.
But today, there was a specific group of youkai who I was keeping an eye out for. That being the members of the Gensokyo High Chess Club.
Now I know what you're thinking: "Chess club students? Really? What kind of danger could they possibly represent?"
To that, I say: "I can guarantee you have never met chess club students like these."
Among every student in GHS, among every group and clique, the Gensokyo High Chess Club were the strangest. The crème de la crème of oddity, if you will, and it wasn't because of their skill in an archaic board game either. No, everyone in GHS knew that whatever was going on in that club room didn't involve chess in the slightest.
So what did it involve, if not chess? Well, that question is tough to answer, but there were rumors. Some were more believable than others, as rumors often are, the most common consensus was that they were some kind of detective group. That would explain why they always snooped around and asked strange questions, but it didn't explain their peculiar behavior. My opinion was that they were probably some kind of undercover mafia that made students "disappear" so that their organs could be sold on the black market, but nothing was concrete.
Part of the reason why was that the Chess Club never accepted new members, ever. In fact, the same ten students had remained the sole members of the Chess Club for as long as I had been here:
Remilia Scarlet, Reimu Hakurei, Marisa Kirisame, Sakuya Izayoi, Alice Margatroid, Youmu Konpaku, Reisen Udongein Inaba, Sanae Koichiya, Hong Meiling and last but not least… Patchouli Knowledge.
Yeah, now I think you can understand why I was a bit paranoid about running into the Chess Club, especially considering how Patchouli had acted toward me this morning. I knew for a fact that if there was anything that could absolutely put a permanent end to my chances of living a peaceful and normal life, it would be getting involved and possibly murdered by the Chess Club. Dead people didn't live lives at all, let alone normal ones.
That was why I was disappointed to find that none of the Chess Club members were out in the courtyard today because that meant they were probably still wandering around the school, no doubt causing trouble.
"So, what are we looking for?" I jumped as a voice I knew all too well spoke up from behind me, and no, it wasn't Patchouli this time. It was a person I had been trying to avoid like the plague since this morning, but it seemed as though fate had finally caught with me.
I slowly turned to face this person. "H-hello, Principal Yakumo," I finally managed to stutter out.
Do you remember when I said the Chess Club was the "crème de la crème of oddity"? Yeah, well, I kind of lied, because Yukari Yakumo, the person who was standing in front of me and the principal of the entire school, was somehow even odder. A complete enigma, no one, not even the Chess Club knew anything about her. Other than that she was a youkai with the ability to open portals (or "gaps" as she called them) anywhere she pleased. Oh, and that she had the propensity to wear weird hats.
Indeed, no one knew anything about Mrs. Yakumo, but everybody knew to fear Mrs. Yakumo. Her ability made her a force to be reckoned with, there wasn't a single place in the entire school where she couldn't appear when you least expected it. But the scariest thing about Mrs. Yakumo was that everything seemed to go her way. That is to say, no matter what, she always had an ace up her sleeve.
Intimidating, intelligent, yet always a little playful too. That was Yukari Yakumo, a perfect maelstrom of personality traits that had never once failed to make me shiver.
"You look very suspicious today, Mr. Coates. I trust you are not planning anything nefarious~?" Mrs. Yakumo asked in her usual teasing tone.
"N-no! Of course not, that would go against all of my ideals!" I quickly explained.
"Ah, yes… of course, your 'ideals'. What were they again? To remain out of sight as much as possible?"
"Something like that, yes."
Mrs. Yakumo puffed her cheeks out a little. "Isn't that quite boring though? I swear I'll never understand you humans. Regardless, shouldn't you be getting lunch instead of worrying about your 'ideals'?"
"Ah, there's no need, I have my lunch right here!" I said, holding up my lunchbox.
I never bought lunch at school, mostly because to do so would involve waiting in line for at least a few minutes in the middle of a courtyard full of students. That would most definitely result in at least a few wandering eyes landing on me, which would result in people talking about me, which would no doubt result in the ruination of- well, you get the idea by now.
"I can see you're quite prepared to have as little human contact as possible," Mrs. Yakumo said, in a somewhat disappointed tone. "Though, I'm curious, don't you ever get lonel-"
"No." I responded before Mrs. Yakumo could even finish her sentence.
Mrs. Yakumo pouted, before once again putting on her usual smile. "Very well, there are no rules against being an introvert. Though I should warn you…" Mrs. Yakumo suddenly fell back through one of her gaps.
"One day you'll find that solitude is not as fun as you may think it is," she whispered into my ear from behind.
"Gah!" I yelped and stumbled forward in surprise before whirling to face her, only to find her giggling at me.
"Well, it's just a thought," Mrs. Yakumo turned around and walked off toward the courtyard. "Have a nice lunch!" she yelled, waving with her back turned.
I sighed in relief, finally, the nightmare was over and I could enjoy my lunch in peace. Thankfully, the school had no rules on where you could and couldn't eat, and over the years I had been able to pick out a few spots that hardly anyone ever visited. I prepared to head to one of those spots, however, just before I could…
"Oh! One other thing!" Mrs. Yakumo popped her head through the wall right next to me using one of her gaps.
I screamed and fell down on my butt in shock, but Mrs. Yakumo seemed totally unconcerned. "Don't think I didn't catch you being late to class in the morning, young man. I let you off because it was your first time being late, but don't let it happen again!" she said, in a failed attempt at a disciplinary tone.
"Now again, enjoy your lunch!" Mrs. Yakumo popped her head back into the gap, which closed shortly after.
I prayed to never see her again.
Remilia Scarlet, the scarlet devil and club president, looked over the state of the Gensokyo High Chess Club room, and quickly noticed that some of their members were somewhat… absent.
"Marisa?" Remilia called out to the ordinary witch and club treasurer, Marisa Kirisame, who was currently engrossed in her phone.
"Yeah? What's up, Remi?" Marisa replied without looking up from the screen, much to Remilia's annoyance.
"Where is Reisen?" Remilia asked, trying her best to contain her frustration.
"Uh… why're you asking me, ze?" Marisa asked, finally looking up at Remilia.
Remilia let out an annoyed sigh. "Does anybody here know where Reisen is then?" she asked the rest of the club members.
"Oh, I knew where Reisen was, ze! Just wanted to know why you asked me in specific," Marisa said with a grin on her face.
Remilia was this close to slapping a bitch. "Okay, 'ze'! Then how about you tell me where she is then, 'ze'!" Remilia yelled, in a terrible impression of Marisa's voice.
However, it seemed as though Marisa either didn't notice or didn't care. "'Kay! Reisen's sick," she replied cheerily.
"Sick?! Again?!" Remilia asked incredulously. "It's only been four days since the last time!"
"Yeah, Reisen gets sick a lot," Marisa said casually. "Hey, check out this meme I found," Marisa said just before the telltale sound of a Discord notification sounded from everyone else's phone.
At that, Remilia finally snatched Marisa's phone away from her. "No memes! This is a serious meeting!" she seethed.
"You realize she's just trying to get a rise out of you again, right President?" the ever-loyal club secretary, Sakuya Izayoi, asked.
The crimson shrine maiden and vice president, Reimu Hakurei, rolled her eyes at that. "Honestly, when isn't she trying to get a rise out of someone?" she pointed out.
Marisa's grin widened.
Remilia could feel a massive headache coming on. "Regardless, Reisen isn't here, what about Youmu? Where is she?"
"Ah, I can answer that," the doll-loving magician youkai, Alice Margatroid, responded. "Some boy thought it would be funny to pull on Myon's tail during third-period break. So Youmu… well, she's in detention now, that's all I'll say."
"And I imagine that boy is in Eirin's office with Reisen?" Reimu asked.
Alice shrugged. "Whatever's left of him I suppose," she said before going back to admiring the doll in her hands.
Remilia pinched the bridge of her nose. "All right, I might regret asking, but what about Sanae?"
"Dentist appointment," the asthmatic witch, Patchouli Knowledge, curtly replied.
Remilia slammed her hands down on the meeting room table, causing it to shake with considerable force. "Honestly, do you all think this is some kind of game?! We're dealing with the biggest case we've ever gotten, and three of our members aren't even present for it!" she exclaimed angrily.
Patchouli huffed and shut the book she was reading before eyeing Remilia. "We don't need them," she said.
Patchouli reached into her bag and placed a binder onto the table, which then opened to reveal an intricate map of the entire school building. (Where Patchouli had gotten such a thing was anyone's guess.)
"According to what we know about Wakabayashi's ability, he'll only have one of four locations to flee to once we corner him," Patchouli pointed to a square that denoted the school's break room. "That being the hallway outside, Room 108 to the right, Room 109 to the left, and finally the room directly above, Room 208."
"Me and my dolls can cover the hallway just fine," Alice said.
"Guess that leaves 108 and 109 to me and Reimu," Marisa added, stretching her arms out in preparation.
"And I shall cover Room 208 while Patchouli confronts Wakabayashi in the break room, correct?" Sakuya asked.
"So that means no matter where Wakabayashi goes, he's sure to be trapped. Then, we can grab the item and submit it as evidence…" Reimu mumbled, slowly following along.
"And bye-bye, Mr. Waka!" Marisa cheered. "Ah, what a relief, I always hated that guy, ze."
"You all catch on quick." Patchouli closed her binder with a pleased smile.
"So, we're all aware of the plan then? Good," Remilia said in the style of a proud military leader, even though she had hardly done anything. "Then let's retrieve the evidence."
It was a perfect plan, Remilia thought, nothing short of an unmitigated and completely unforeseen set of coincidences involving an as-of-yet unknown outside force could possibly cause it to fail.
"Ack!" I grunted as I collided with someone, causing me to drop my lunchbox in the process. "Sorry, sorry! I wasn't looking where I was going!"
If only Mrs. Yakumo hadn't put me so on edge, I cursed internally.
As I looked up to see who I had bumped into, my heart immediately sank.
Great, this is only the third worst person that I could have possibly run into today.
"Mr. Coates!" Mr. Waka yelled angrily.
"Oh no! Mr. Waka, I'm so sorry!" I blurted.
Mr. Waka approached me, scowling menacingly. "That's Mr. Wakabayashi to you, runt."
I shrunk back. "R-right! Sorry Mr. Waka- I mean, Mr. Wakabayashi! I wasn't looking where I was going," I repeated.
Mr. Waka growled. "Yeah, that much I can see. Listen here, I did you a kindness today after you were late to class, but don't go thinking you're a special case. You're just like every other loser student at this school," Mr. Waka spat, inches away from my face.
"O-of course, Mr. Wakabayashi, I wouldn't have it any other way!" I exclaimed, truthfully.
Mr. Waka looked genuinely confused for a moment. "Well, whatever." He picked his lunchbox off the ground. "I have somewhere to be, move it."
With that, Mr. Waka pushed past me and stomped off to God knows where.
I prayed I would never see him again.
Still, I suppose we do have one thing in common, I thought to myself as I picked up my own lunchbox off the ground.
Apparently, we have the same taste in lunchboxes, so that's something. Ah, I should stop trying to relate to Mr. Waka. The less alike we are, the better.
Huh… speaking of which, doesn't my lunchbox feel a bit heavier than usual? Eh, probably just my imagination.