All attempts at interacting with the Sakamaki had turned out fruitless. So in the laziest way possible and the cheesiest, Mifuyu leaves a letter in his locker for her thanks and leaves it at that. Stretching her arms high in the air and groaning after turning off her shower water, scratching the back of her head. Another week of school passed by quickly and yet another week was on the horizon, as unfortunate as that was. Mifuyu hadn't been able to set up a time and place for the tutoring sessions and in fact, she was going to tell Yui that she couldn't do that because she wasn't a professional. But she was so flustered by the sudden inquiry she just couldn't say no. As much as she appreciated Saotome for recommending a lower-classman to ask a student, Mifuyu would have to decline. She has to focus on her studies and herself if she ever wants to get to where her father was.

Pulling up her black thigh-highs and brushing off any particles that might have been on the school uniform, Mifuyu walks down the stairs to be greeted by her aunts. Before the other could remind her of what their niece needed to bring, she puts her hand up. "Cell phone, I got it. Bookbag, gotcha. My shoes? Over there-" She points to the walkway. "...already waiting for me. No, I'm not taking lunch today. I'll just get something from the vending machines." Mifuyu finishes and walks past Hina, sliding on her shoes.

"Mifuyu you're doing this again?" Akari asks, huffing as she lets the ladle sit in the brewing pot. "I'm making curry and it would be really quick to whip you up something." She says and the ravenette shakes her head, clicking her tongue. "I don't need it, auntie. I'll be just fine. It isn't like I can heat it whenever I'm home, right?" Without waiting for a response, Mifuyu was out the door and walked down the apartment steps to her escort, sliding in the backseat with ease. They depart for the school as she once again fiddles with her phone.

…

Whenever she does arrive and goes to walk to her homeroom while also ignoring the fangirl cries as Kou hadn't shown up this morning yet, a student runs rather quickly down the hallway and knocks Mifuyu's shoulder, causing her to tip back some- but catches herself before falling. Angry, the student whips her head around. "Hey, idiot! Watch where you're fucking going!" She shouts and the student keeps running, completely negligent of the ravenette's outburst. Disregarding it, she keeps walking down the hall to see a couple more students frantic while running down the hallway. Confused by how panicked they were, Mifuyu catches one of the girl's hands, stopping her.

"Why are you guys-?!"

"He saw a dead body!" The girl exclaimed, hyperventilating. "I-In the basement! Two of them are-" She screams, running away to catch up with her friend. Mifuyu just stands there, dumbstruck.

'Dead bodies? That's ridiculous. It must be some sort of prank! Puh!'

Mifuyu looks to where the two girls had run from and crosses her arms, body turning toward the open basement doors. She shakes her head and decides to skip her class. Walking past the steps she was meant to take up to the second floor, she walks over to the allegedly horrifying dungeon. Flicking on her flashlight on her phone, Mifuyu walks down the steps carefully, a small draft blowing past her legs sending goosebumps up her arms. It was unnaturally cold in here. She had never been down here as the principal blocked it off to prevent any students from doing anything taboo. However the lock was broken and the adolescent who comes to the theory may be one of those kids who ran past her, broke it. Descending into the darkness, a strange coppery smell fills her nostrils. Mifuyu covers it, a sound of disgust escaping.

"Blood…?"

She walks down further and further into the basement until the smell almost overwhelms her. Her light travels from the floor and slowly crawls upward to reveal a body. More specifically a male's body- alongside another boy who seemed to be younger than him. They were pale as snow, looking like shriveled up raisins as they lie there uselessly. Mouths agape in utter terror, eyes remaining wide. Mifuyu's heart drops at the sight and shakily steps back to only trip and land on the steps, dropping her phone. The darkness surrounds her quickly and she yelps, snatching it off the ground, backpedaling up a few steps before sitting.

"W-What the hell..!? What the hell is going on here?!" Mifuyu shouts, grasping at strings to figure out what she had just seen. It wasn't just some prank. This was real. This was happening. The ravenette can hear her teeth chatter in fear as she shoves her phone inside her skirt pocket, climbing up the stairs and toward the light. As soon as she made it to the top, she was greeted by people in blue.

"Freeze! Don't move!" One officer says, holding up a taser. Mifuyu does, as they say, raising her hands in the air. "I-I'm..! B-Bodies!" She trips over her words like a scared child, struggling to describe what she just saw. The second officer beside the first and third carefully takes her hand, moving her away from the entrance of the basement. The two remaining run down the steps as fast as they could. Her silver eyes dart all over the place, starting to shake as the adrenaline pumps in her veins.

"Calm down, miss. It's alright. Can you walk?" The lady officer asks gently as Mifuyu holds her head, staring at the ground.

"I-I...they're dead! They're fucking dead!" She exclaims and the officer softly takes one of her hands, walking slowly away from the crime scene.

"Just follow me to the entrance of your school, okay? Everything will be alright."

"...Holy shit..." Mifuyu's outbursts had subsided into small mutters focusing on her two feet dragging across the floor. She didn't see how they were killed nor the cause of it anywhere now that she thinks about it. But the thought of thinking about their unchangeable faces of death makes Mifuyu feel queasy. However much time had passed, she was sitting down with a group of her year of classmates, outside the building. The officer that had walked with her departed, leaving the helpless girl alone to ponder her thoughts.

"Are all of our classmates here?" A familiar voice calls out to the small handful of students, making Mifuyu lift her head. Some of her classmates were huddled up with each other, crying. Some were just sitting by themselves. So early in the night too. The other class years that were in a separate class had either remained quiet or they were arguing about what had gone on. White noise. It was all white noise. Muffled and so much ringing.

'Just like before...just like before I-'

"Satomi Mifuyu!" Her name is shouted rather loudly and she immediately rises, her ears following the announcement of her name.

"What!?" Mifuyu lashes out, hands balled up into fists. The source of her discontentment was the man who had saved her about a week ago.

"...Say you are present whenever I call your name, Satomi-san." Reiji sighs, holding a clipboard close to him as he uses a pen to scribble something down. Clenching her teeth in agitation, Mifuyu stomps toward him as she shoves other students out of her way.

"Do you have any idea what the fuck I saw in there!?" She points at the school building and looks back at the slightly taller individual. "Maybe if you weren't so up your own ass, you would maybe get the littlest of hints that I'm not doing fucking peachy right now!" Reiji's face remains stoic, his ice-cold raspberry hues clash against the silver daggers that challenged him.

"Remain calm, Satomi-san."

Just as Mifuyu was going to start in again, someone grabs her hand. When she turns to see who it is, it was a very disgruntled Saotome. Tightly, she pulls Mifuyu away from Reiji's face- and away from her class crowd. His eyes follow the two until they are out of distance and continue to take roll.

"S-Saotome..?" Mifuyu blinks at least twice, making sure that this wasn't some type of illusion or trick that her mind loves to play with.

"You know you can't snap at people like that, Mifuyu." Saotome lectures, sitting her down by a nearby tree, a bit away from all the other crowds. The ravanette touches the grass, the bark of the tree, and then hugs herself...letting tears fall from her eyes. "I'm sorry..! I'm so, so sorry I-" The ravenette blubbers out and then feels her body being pulled further into an embrace. Saotome runs her fingers through the student's midnight hair, hugging her tightly.

"Shh, it's alright. It's alright." The brunette reassures.

That was the first time in awhile that Mifuyu Saotomi had cried like that.

…

Everyone was being escorted home as it was ordered by law enforcement that same night. Saotome is the one who takes Mifuyu home after two hours have passed. Arriving home this early was enough of a surprise that it almost made Hina faint. The three women help Mifuyu inside the apartment and she walks up to her bedroom, shutting the door. She locks it and slowly falls to the floor, hugging her knees. The tears had dried a while ago after being talked down. The want to cry more for what had happened there but she shuts it down, tiredly closing her eyes.

Mifuyu swallows a lump in her throat, taking a deep breath.

"One, two, three, four…" She begins to count her anxiety away. Taught by her also anxiety-ridden auntie Hina. It was a good technique to calm one down of an attack if it were to heighten. She continues this ritual and reopens her eyes, slowly standing to walk to her bed, sitting and falling backward on it. By the end of reaching number twenty, she takes another shaky inhale of oxygen and sighs. Her body was still shaking however to which Mifuyu held her own hands, her left rubbing the right softly.

"Those bodies…" She recollects, eyes honing in on the green fabric sheets. "T-They looked...awful. Is that what Dad really had to see?" Mifuyu questions the air as to not expect a response. Her father would always come home with a fake smile on his face as the small child knew he was always hiding behind it. His job wasn't easy, far from it and she knew that. Her daughter admired him so much that she wanted to be just like him...but despised how he wasn't honest with her. Maybe this was why.

"..." Mifuyu stops rubbing her hands, remembering how she reacted earlier. She shakes her head and pinches the bridge of her nose, squeezing her eyes shut. "I really need to get my fuckin' act together. How am I ever gonna get to where I want to be if I lash out like that…?" The ravenette says, cringing at how loud she had yelled at her senior. That unfrazzled look on his face and how calm he was in that situation makes Mifuyu bite her lip.

"He's good at not feeding into my bullshit, hah." She laughs half-heartedly and goes to pull out her phone, putting in her password. She immediately checks the news and as she expected, an article was posted after the murder had happened. Hesitantly she clicks on it and it gives her a minimal amount of information:

'We interrupt your daily program for a breaking news bulletin...

Early this morning 2 bodies were found in the basement of Ryoutei High School. The cause is currently unknown though it seems as though they were mauled and the killer drained them of blood. If you know anything about this case, please contact the crime hotline at...'

It went on to say that school would be closed for one to two weeks as it would keep everyone informed of the situation. Mifuyu squints at the cause of death, re-reading it over and over again. The way it was done was...peculiar.

"Mauled...and drained of blood?" Mifuyu questions, feeling her heart starting to pitter-patter again at the thought of it. "Why would someone drain somebody's blood?" She ponders the question more, staring intently at her phone. That is until her shaking caught up with her again and she turned off her phone, now laying down on her bed. The now waxing crescent of the moon's light shines in her windows, clouds floating across it while it starts to twinkle. Mifuyu stares up at the moon, gripping her pillow.

"...What a way to go..."