Monotonous Motions
While one newly reincarnated devil went through all the motion of asking if anybody remembered his beautiful date, Alphonse sleepily ambled his way past the towering school gates. His research had taken him all night to at least have a notion of how deep the well is, taking years, maybe decades, to have an intimate understanding of it. Not to mention the sources are perhaps biased to begin with. It was around four in the early morning, when he decided that perusing online sources appears to be a dead end, and the jaw-breaking yawn heavily suggested that sleep is the best option.
So, here we found Alphonse, with folded arms resting on the desk and his head slumped against them. The present company gave a cursory glance at their only male classmate who is normally wide awake and alert at this time of day. If they could stay quiet for at least a few seconds, they would be able to hear his soft snores. As it is, the girls' chattered amongst themselves, catching up on more earthly topics.
The classroom door slid open, revealing Sona with Tsubaki just trailing behind her. The Student Council President greeted everyone good morning with her usual grace. Her eyes quickly zeroed in on the hunched sleeping figure of Alphonse which corresponds to the familiar's morning report. She made eye contact with her Queen and slipped an elongated strip of paper onto her hands and curtly nodded. Sona slipped into her seat as Tsubaki made her way past Alphonse, slipping said object into his unattended book, and silently took her seat.
Minutes later, the teacher entered the classroom. The old wizened teacher with her silvered hair tied on a neat bun dropped an impressive stack of paper on the teacher's desk with an audible thud. Her hawk-eyed gaze swept through the entire class which served to cut-off the chatter.
"Now then!" She clapped her hands loudly together. "Before I return your papers, Miss Shirai, be a dear and wake up Mr. Darcozzi if you please."
"Yes Ma'am!" the auburn-haired girl replied with a grin before kicking the bottom of his seat. Hard. Alphonse, to his credit, only groaned and peeked through the harsh morning light.
"Glad you could join us Mr. Darcozzi." Alphonse drowsily gaze around while a few giggled at his expense. He spotted the teacher gazing directly at him and acknowledge her by apologizing.
"M'sorry." A giant yawn escaped with a jaw-popping sound.
"Make sure you don't do it again." She nodded once at his direction before redirecting her attention back to the rest of the class, "Now, I understand reading may not be incredibly exciting with the power of the internet at the palm of your hands…"
Alphonse walked out of the gate, following his path from yesterday. His confident, measured strides belie the nervousness he is currently experiencing. He may have escaped yesterday's debacle unharmed with both sides satisfied at the outcome, relatively speaking of course. But, the need for answers, to important questions they needed to better prepare themselves, necessitates that he asks any credible sources directly. Meaning forcibly 'interrogating' the winged witch.
Alphonse smack his forehead and ran a hand down his face before lamenting towards the heavens. "Why in the name of Wael did I take this!" It was futile to asked for guidance from The Hundred Visions. They cannot hear his prayer much less answer them even if he tried to invoke one of their sigils. He sighed, as he arrived at the place of his deception. Taking a guarded look around, he didn't spot anybody nearby, except perhaps a sharp-eyed and terribly huge raven looking at his direction.
He assumed he's safe from another sneak attack for the moment and dropped his bag onto the grass. He could hear his belongings shift inside. Crouching down, he pulled out a folded piece of white paper from one of the pockets. He immediately unfolded it to reveal it to be a scanned copy of the map from the academy's library of Kuoh Town and its surrounding area.
Alphonse laid it as flat as it can be on the grass and fished out a black pen from his pocket, marking his current location into the map. He also pulled out his phone, opened the compass app and set it down near the dotted mark.
"Okay…." He rubbed his hands. Then, he began to take careful measures of the Fallen Angel's flight path using the hole-riddled tree and the known direction of Kuoh Academy as landmarks. Quickly, he drew out the general direction on the map with a poor imitation of a straight line.
To his surprise, the line goes through parts of the school grounds and directly into the town, making his already difficult search even more difficult. Alphonse loudly breathed, "of course" and rolled his eyes.
If I'm lucky, they've holed themselves in an abandoned building while laughing manically.
"It feels like I'm way over my head," he loudly spoke to himself. The eavesdropping raven then crooned in a tone that suspiciously sounded like it agreed to his assessment. Alphonse slowly craned his neck towards the bird in question, eyeing it with mild suspicion. The raven cocked its head, then spread out its wings, and took to the air. It seems the bird decided to take its leave, seemingly afraid of him doing something irreversible to its well-being.
With his survey work only taking a few short minutes, the next logical step is to narrow down the spots for potential bolt holes. Meaning, the first thing he should do is go and look for forsaken buildings in town. It's not exactly something mind blowing, nor exciting. It is, however, quite illegal to go poke at some abandoned building without permission though.
So, his next logical step is for him to pay a visit to the Town Hall and peruse their Records Room.
Alphonse pocketed his phone, tucked his pen away and folded the map, pushing it deep inside the bag. He started walking, his wayward thoughts wandered about how those books almost always have their protagonist bypass or gloss over the boring investigative part of the process. Often enough, the intrepid heroes always get their next clue serendipitously dropped right to their faces.
Above him, the jet-black raven lazily circled around its mark.
For the next few days, said familiar followed Alphonse's throughout his rather dull quest of digging for more information about the owners of the unused lands which their buildings remained in a state of disrepair. Surprisingly, there were not that many of them, making his search all the easier than he expected. Still, setting foot on them to examine for traces of those Fallen Angels proved to be a more difficult prospect.
Mainly due to the bureaucratic red tape hampering his investigation. And so, Alphonse scribbled down all relevant material, which includes their contact information of each real estate owners. Those he could reach and talk to in person denied him his petition due to the dilapidated state of their buildings.
As for the rest, which he couldn't reach their owners, he approached the local police precinct for permission. So far, those officers he did talked to pointed him to their superior, and, strangely enough, he ended up inside the Captain's office.
"So" the gruff man reached for his breast pocket and fished out a red and white pack of cigarette. He pulled one cigarette out and stuck it to his mouth. The grey-haired man surprisingly offered him one, which he declined politely. The captain only shrugged as he returned pack back into the pocket and continued speaking. "Kid. Got a name?"
"Ah, yes" Alphonse took out his school ID and placed it on the desk for the captain to take a good look at it. "Alphonse Darcozzi. Third Year Student at Kuoh Academy."
Captain Shirai grunted "Ah" as he slid the ID towards him and inspected it. He picked it up and shone it under the light of his incandescent lamp as he flashed it back and forth. "That's the posh all-girls school. My daughter goes there. I heard the went co-ed a couple of years back."
Alphonse replied, "That's also what I've heard." He politely continued the small talk, trying not shift nervously on his seat.
"Your ID checks out" Shirai slid the card right back to him and lit his cigar with a lighter. He puffed a few and the smoke lingered around the office, creating a hazy atmosphere. "So, what can I do for you this afternoon, Mr. Darcozzi." Alphonse nodded once and fished out an eight by eleven-inch lined paper and unfolded it.
"I like to have permission to survey the sites on numbers One, Two, Five, Seven, and Thirteen." He slid the paper across the desk for the precinct captain to go over. "I wasn't able to find or reach the owners for those sites." He kept his eyes glued to the captain as he reached for the paper and went over through the list quickly.
Captain Kenji Shirai was subtly impressed. Written on the paper, numbering from one to fourteen, were the street addresses, owner credentials, their contact information, and some even have an attorney's information. All of them except for the numbers the kid pointed out were crossed out with reasons scribbled beside them. He laid the paper down and pulled out his cigarette from his mouth.
"Kid," Alphonse noted a hint of respect laced in his tired voice. "I got to admit, based on what I saw on this thing," he tapped his left index finger on the paper "You did your homework quite well." Alphonse nodded at his acknowledgement, waiting for him to get to the point. "I got to ask, why go through all the trouble?"
Luckily, Alphonse already created a plausible cover story before he went through all the trouble of reaching for the land owners. "I'm working on a research paper. It's about proper land usage."
"Land usage?" Kenji now stared at the Kuoh student with disbelief.
"Yes, I was hoping, with my work, I can show the members of the Kuoh town council the merits of beautifying the town while raising its total land value." He said it with a straight face while knowing it all to be false. Well, maybe not all of it. He might after all write that paper just to solidify his cover story.
"Then, why do you need to enter those lots?" Kenji asked getting to the heart of it all. "You can write a paper without actually stepping foot on one of them."
Alphonse nodded, "Of course." He leaned forward. "But, in doing so, it will not have the same impact. Do you think they would consider going into one by themselves? What I need is visual evidence to support my argument. For that I need to be on site, taking pictures. Showcasing the 'truth' so to speak."
The captain leaned back against his chair, mulling over the kid's proposition. He has nothing against him and his idea. In fact, he felt like supporting his endeavor. It was rather strange for a high school kid doing this on his own volition. If it was his daughter, she would no doubt moan and groan. Complaining about it until the last minute. Well, at least he's not skipping classes and taking drugs, or any other delinquent behavior.
He inhaled deeply before blowing out a thick puff of smoke, "Well kid, you've got me convinced. I'll write you up something official." He raised his hands stopping him from saying anything yet, "But, I'll have a few officers take a look at the property lot first, ensuring it to be safe and sound you know." He chuckled "After all, we can't have a kid as bright as you getting into an accident."
Alphonse stood up and bowed deep in gratitude as per local custom, thankful at last for something to go his way for once after being denied left and right. "Arigato!"
"Yeah, yeah." Kenji smiled gruffly as he lazily waved a hand, "Just hand over your home address and I'll send it as soon as I'm able."
Unbeknownst to all parties involve, a dangerous stray is currently heading directly to Kuoh, having been chased away from her last lair. And, she hungers for some human flesh.
AN: As the title hinted, nothing remotely close to fun or exciting happened. Hopefully, the next chapter or chapter after, will contain some explosions and general mayhem for one small part of the sleepy town.
Who knows, it might usher the poor fool back from the being side-railed.