How did Miku find out? It was the question that followed Kaito to bed that night and slept beside him. Kaito was sure Kaiko had something to do with it, but he decided against confronting his cousin. These were things he should have told Miku months ago. It was nobody's fault but his own that she found out through other means.
Unable to sleep, Kaito rose from his bed. The chill night air bit his exposed skin, but he didn't bother to put on a shirt. His mind raced too much for him to waste time on physical comfort.
Kaito sat at his desk and took a deep breath. If he couldn't sleep, he would spend the time being productive. Perhaps a little more work would tire him out.
Waking his tablet, Kaito cursed as the light blinded him and turned the brightness down to a more comfortable level. After his eyes adjusted, Kaito again looked through all the files he read earlier that day. There had to be something, anything, to help him get another step closer to figuring this out. Some sort of breadcrumb. A crumb too small for a mouse would suffice.
"What if there is no mouse?" Mew had said just that afternoon. "What if we're cats chasing the light from a laser?"
Maybe Mew truly wasn't foolish.
Hating himself for being so narrow-minded, Kaito began looking through his files with a new eye. When he saw everything the way Mew suggested, pieces began clicking into place. Of course, there were still many parts unaccounted for, but Kaito began to see what Mew meant.
These so-called "Thorns" were not the most organized group. Not that Kaito dismissed the idea of the Thorns being nothing more than a bunch of rebellious, dumb Juliets, but he opened up to the idea of them being a distraction. A distraction from what, Kaito didn't have the faintest clue where to begin finding the answer to that question.
Kaito reread his interview with Galaco. No matter how critically he read it, none of Galaco's wording hinted at deceit or avoiding a question. She had to have been telling the truth. Unless . . . Perhaps, and it was a slim possibility, everything Galaco told Kaito was nothing more than a well-rehearsed lie.
Sure, the Thorns could be small and not the best organized, but that didn't mean Galaco was involved with them. She could have used them as a cover up. If what Mew suggested had any truth to it, then Galaco didn't just play Kaito for a fool; she told him everything he needed to know to get him right where she wanted him.
Kaito cursed himself and the situation as he shut off his tablet. While he and the others were cats chasing a laser, it was very possible the mouse, the real threat, was bidding its time and waiting for the opportunity to strike. Now that so many months were wasted, Kaito didn't want to imagine what kind of power this supposed threat had accumulated.
"This can't wait till morning," Kaito muttered, rising to his feet and grabbing a shirt and his robe. He needed to tell Master Tonio Mew's ideas immediately.
Kaito froze when a loud bang echoed within the wing. It sounded like a blaster, and it was only a few halls down. He was paralyzed for only a moment, then Kaito yanked open a drawer to retrieve his stunner. Not potentially deadly like a blaster and less likely to save his life, but it was better than going in empty handed. If luck was on his side, maybe Kaito could stun the other person before he got shot.
As Kaito left his rooms and advanced towards the sound of the shot, he heard a woman scream. He began to sprint down the halls. That was his mother's scream.
Kaiko was behind him immediately. "What happened?!" she exclaimed as she ran beside him.
Instead of answering, Kaito shouted, "Go back to your room and don't come out till I tell you!"
"As if I'm letting you charge into this by yourself."
Cursing his cousin's stubbornness, Kaito did nothing to stop her from following him. Someone with a weapon was on the loose. Another person had already been hurt, and his mother had seen something in order to warrant that blood curdling scream.
Kaito didn't even know if his mother was in danger.
He ran even faster.
When he made the scene, other people were crowding around. Most were faculty, but it appeared some of the older students heard the scream and rushed to see what was wrong. An Alice and a couple Juliets were also present. They all stared at something. Everyone paled at what they saw.
"Mother!" Kaito called as Kaiko cried, "Aunt Yanhe!"
"Kaito! Kaiko!" Ms. Yanhe emerged from the crowd and rushed towards her son and niece. "I was out getting a glass of water with the assistance of this Alice when I heard the shot and we thought about turning back but we also had to see if someone was hurt so we crept closer and saw nobody around except this form on the floor and we slowly got closer and—"
Unable to contain it any longer, Ms. Yanhe fell forward. Kaito caught her, and she buried her face in her son's chest as she began to sob without restraint. A sick feeling traveling down from his gut to his toes, Kaito passed his mother to Kaiko and pushed through the crowd.
He nearly threw up at what lay before him.
Lying on the lush carpet floor, hair loose and wild, was a woman. The blood pouring from her skull revealed where she was shot. She didn't move.
Kaito didn't know how he was still standing, not when he saw the already white face growing paler and paler by the second. This isn't happening. There's no way that's—
"Mew!" Wil ran down the hall like a man fleeing Hell, pushed the onlookers out of the way, and dropped by his motionless wife's side.