Shadows of Akademi: Deception
Chapter Two
THE ATTACK
And unto him the spirits spoke, "We are the children of the night. We are the denizens of the dark, cloaked in blackest shadow. We are the fallen angels, soaring through ebon skies upon raven's wings. We are the wolves that prowl the midnight hours to prey upon the heartless. We are the descendants of the dragon's blood, the keepers of the ancient flame. We are the chosen ones who dare to explore the mysteries of the unseen realms." -Book of the Night
The next day Info-Chan went about her usual schedule. She woke up early, brushed her teeth, took a shower, ate breakfast, and left for school an hour early. She had put on a wig and different glasses just in case. Info-Chan snuck into the school building using her personal key, and immediately made way for the Info Club. Once inside, she deflated the doll and sat down at her computers. She went through her usual and noticed something unique. Shiro was attending class. He was now wearing the school's second uniform. A black button-down trench coat with matching slacks and brown shoes. Yet there were slight differences to his uniform than most. Shiro wore a black T-shirt underneath the trench coat, had also decided to keep the coat fully unbuttoned, and wore black shoes instead of the usual brown. His dark clothing contrasted immensely with his white hair and blue eyes. Shiro sat down at a desk, and leaned back, idly twirling a pencil. This was different, and Info-Chan suspected that Shiro may be up to something. Info-Chan watched as Ayano sat next to Shiro, and the teacher began taking role. When she got to Shiro, Info-Chan was surprised to learn that he hadn't been using an alias. He then began taking notes as class started. She checked for Kenji, but he hadn't shown up for some reason.
Info-Chan received a message from her informant, and check the internet. Her brow furrowed as she read the news article titled "Young Teen Found Dead in Own House by Carbon Monoxide Poisoning". Info-Chan sighed, talk about unlucky. She read through the article, and closed it out. Bad luck indeed. Info-Chan took out a soda and popped the can open, downing its contents in record time with a small burp afterwards. She watched as Shiro went through his classes for the day, and was mildly amused. It seemed that if he really wanted and put the effort into it, he could be a superb student… Which brought Info-Chan back to her main concern, why was Shiro acting as a student and or a delinquent in the first place? What was he even up to? Once it was lunchtime, Shiro actually got his lunch and ate outside with the delinquents. Info-Chan listened in on the conversations, but learned nothing important from them. She received and alert again, it was from whomever was trying to access her student profile. They were getting more desperate it seemed. Info-Chan switched to Ayano for a bit, but nothing interesting was going on. Everyone went back to class and Shiro began taking notes again.
When it finally hit 3:00PM, Shiro made his way to the Occult Club. Info-Chan was mildly surprised to find that Shiro had joined the club. Shiro helped with the club preparations. He got out a vase of salt, and began pouring it around the circle of the pentagram. He then helped set up six. Blood red, candles on the points of the star. The Occult Club put on dark robes and lit the candles. The robes were black leather trench coats with hoods, gloves, and black boots. Each hood cast shadows over the faces of the Occult Club members, and Shiro took a key, and dipped it in a chalice of red wine before placing both the chalice and the key inside the middle of the pentagram, making sure as to not destroy the seal of salt around the area. The Occult Club put on silver necklaces and Shiro nodded to Oka Ruto and they started the ritual.
"Latrop eht ssap won nac uoy ,nomed lufetah dna lacilobaid a morf pleh llac ,lleh ot latrop a nepo yb ereh I !cigam emoselohw ym gnisu yb edis krad eht tcatnoc won I .lleps siht mrofrep ot rewop rieht rehtag ,esrevinu eht fo stnemele lufrewop lla rehtag I!" Oka chanted without pause, "Eb ti etom oS .ymene ruo nopu llaf esruc ruo sa detpecca eb lliw sdeed live ruoy ,nesohc I tcejbo taht gnissessop yB .ot uoy dlot I taht ymene eht mrah tub em mrah reven nac uoY .pleh ym htiw nosrep taht nopu live fo rewop ruoy hsaelnu nac uoY .em demrah sah taht ,gnivil a hsinup em pleh ot ereh uoy tnes ev'I ,ylraelc em netsil!"
Info-Chan watched as they tried to summon a demon familiar, after making sure that the containment would not fail of course. Yet after numerous attempts, nothing happened. Shiro suggested adding blood into the chalice containing red wine, and Oka restarted the chant after she had put a small cut on her finger and let some blood drip into the chalice. Still nothing. Eventually it was time to leave, and so Shiro helped pack everything up and took a swig from the wine bottle for good measure. He headed up to the third floor while the Occult Club members went home. Shiro then met up with Osoro. Info-Chan watched as the two talked, she'd never seen Osoro open up like this. She was smiling and laughing with Shiro. The two sat on a bench and talked, sometimes Shiro would point at something and Osoro would roll her eyes. Eventually the two had to leave, and walked off schoolgrounds together. Info-Chan however, had decided to linger like usual. She then picked up a burner phone and dialed a number.
"Rei speaking." The girl from before picked up.
"Rei, can you get me a bio on a student her at Akademi? His name is Shiro Tamagachi." Info-Chan asked Rei.
"Yeah, it might take a bit, but I'll be able to find him soon." Rei told Info-Chan, and she hung up.
Info-Chan waited until all of the faculty had left before blowing up her disguise and heading towards the door, she was about to leave when something on her computer screen caught her eye. It was Shiro. Her was entering the building again. Info-Chan then locked the doors and hid in the room, watching Shiro's every movement. Shiro was talking to someone on a burner phone, but his tone was too quiet for Info-Chan to pick up. He made a beeline straight for the Occult Club room and closed the flip phone. He then began to ransack the area, obviously searching for something important.
"Just what are you up to Shiro?" Info-Chan murmured as she watched Shiro tear the room apart.
Shiro literally pulled the rug off the ground and threw it aside like it was made of paper. On the ground, was a well-hidden trapdoor. It was small, and clearly designed for hiding an object. Shiro took the cover off and found a few pieces of paper, along with a key on a necklace, and an obsidian ritual blade with a crystal green cat-like eye in the blade. He read the pieces of paper, but the text was too small and the room too dark for Info-Chan to read the paper clearly. It seemed that this wasn't what Shiro had been looking for, and he threw the papers away in a fit of rage. The key smacked against the wall and Shiro began to thrash the room in a rage, leaving no bookcase upturned and no chair untipped. Shiro stomped out of the room and pulled out the phone. He pressed a few buttons and walked straight to the Janitors closet. He opened the door and threw a table out of the room. There was a door closed shut by a padlock, and Info-Chan guessed that it had most likely been forgotten about.
"What are you doing now?" She wondered, and Shiro cracked his neck.
He literally kicked the door open, breaking the chain on the padlock. Info-Chan watched him enter the room and close the door. She then reset the doll and locked the room, putting on her wig and running out of the school. She knew Shiro possessed illegal firearms, and did not want to chance it further by staying and observing much longer than she already had. Whatever he was up to, he obviously didn't want to be noticed. More so, he was very angry at the moment. She went to her room and got an alert, it was from her informant, Chouji Nakajima.
"I'll be investigating in person Friday night. I have recently acquired a chemical analyzer." Chouji's email read.
"Stole it?" Info-Chan emailed back.
"Maybe." Chouji replied after a minute or so.
"Good." Info Chan emailed back to Chouji. "You know the protocol, right?"
"I do." Chouji emailed instantly.
Info-Chan deleted her emails and then tucked into bed. But while one person was getting into bed, another was just leaving his. Chouji Matsuuji got out of bed, and stretched, popping his back with a groan. He usually dyed his hair a blood red, but had washed out all of the dye early in the morning. His hair was midnight black, and very messy. His crimson red eyes were bright and alert though, betraying no hint of fatigue or fear. He usually wore the school's blazer when attending classes, and a casual suit when outside of the school. But this time was a little bit different from the other times, and so Chouji put on a different outfit, one more suited for stealth and mobility. Black sweatpants, a black hoodie, gloves, and shoes. Chouji then snuck out of the house once the clock hit midnight and put on his backpack full of equipment. He then set a timer on the burner phone he owned. He had exactly five hours to disable the alarm before it sent a secured alert to Info-Chan notifying her of his demise, and then wiping the phone clean completely. It seemed like overkill, but with strange occurrences like these, it didn't hurt to be a bit paranoid. Chouji ran off, despite his academic appearance, he was quite fit. He arrived at the school, and immediately began investigating the wreckage. The device instantly picked up traces of Hexamine, Hexamine nitrated with ammonium nitrate, and small traces of C4H8N8O8. Chouji looked up the chemicals and their uses, and found out that these were the exact chemical compositions for the military-grade explosive, cyclotetramethylene-tetranitramine, more commonly known as HMX. Chouji took out his phone and noted down that the explosive was military-grade, and that a professional had been involved in the bombing.
"The device has picked up slight traces of chemicals used in the synthesis of HMX, a military grade explosive." Chouji spoke into the recorder, his voice low and his tone sharp. "This chemical is hard to make, since the synthesis chemicals are banned in Japan. This bombing may have been the work of a professional, since I presume no student would have access to these chemicals."
Chouji hit the stop button and sighed. He texted Info-Chan to have someone look into the students of Ritsumeikan, and to see which parents were military or worked with chemicals. He got up and something impacted the wall in front of him. Chouji ran off, and more impacts. Someone had opened fire on him! Chouji instantly ran into the ruined school for cover, his legs burning as the pumped his body forwards at an alarming pace. His heart jackhammered within his ribs and he could almost feel the lungs rapidly inflating and deflating. Chouji stumbled into the next room, his heart close to bursting and sweat dripping off of his forehead, the corridor ended in a T and he took the left hall and frantically tried the door, it was locked. He rammed against the door, and staggered back up as it gave away. There were more gunshots, these ones were not suppressed. At least he was able to keep a few rooms ahead of his assailant. Chouji ran and took a left, heading straight through a ruined section and then a right. He slid underneath a collapsed support beam and got back up, never losing his pace as he threw his burner phone into the rubble. Chouji had a feeling that he wouldn't make it out of the school. Bullets ricocheted off the walls and Chouji took a sharp right, and then left. He slammed straight into someone and got back up, ready to fight. It was Shiro.
"Come on!" Shiro yelled to Chouji, "We need to keep going!"
"What's going on!" Chouji asked as they ran.
"I was investigating the bombing, and someone began to shoot at me!" Shiro shouted back, and they took a left.
Chouji felt relieved, maybe now he might have a chance to get out and alert Info-Chan. The two ran for a bit, and it seemed that they had lost their pursuer. Chouji and Shiro slowed to a walk and began to talk in hushed tones.
"I too was investigating," Chouji admitted, breathing heavily. "There's something going on, and I need to get to the bottom of it."
"Same here, I don't know what's going on, but innocent people got caught up into the mix. I think it has to do something with Masami Shiroma, she may have found something." Shiro agreed, he stopped and held his hand up.
"What is…" Chouji began, and then fell silent. The floor was creaking. "That can't be good."
Suddenly the floor gave out and the two tumbled down into the hole. Shiro offered Chouji his hand and Chouji grabbed ahold. Chouji instantly noticed that Shiro had been wearing stark white latex gloves. Extreme pain erupted in his abdomen, and Chouji looked down in shock to find Shiro holding a metal supporter. Chouji's eyes traveled from Shiro's hand to his side, he was bleeding... Chouji gasped as blood pooled from the heavy wound. Unable to speak since he had gone into shock. His eyes asked the question for him. Why? Shiro watched as Chouji stumbled and fell to the ground, clutching his side. Within moments, he was dead. Shiro cleaned the rung off on Chouji's shirt and pulled out a burner phone.
"I presume you had let me deal with the situation because I was here, no?" Shiro told the person on the other line. "South Wing, Hall 3C. Can't miss the hole."
Shiro paused for a moment, listening to the other person. He began inspecting the tunnel, and found that this was indeed a secret passage. On the door, were depictions of numerous demons carved into the metal door. There was one at the very top, holding a ritual dagger with an eye in it and a book. Shiro took out the ritual dagger from the night before, and stared at the carvings.
"Well, that's up to you." Shiro responded with a cruel smirk. "I, on the other hand, have some… business… to attend too."
Shiro snapped the flip phone shut and pushed open the doors. He was not disappointed in what he had found, and his smile turned from cruel to downright predatorial. The darkness seemed to cling to Shiro as he walked menacingly through the doors, and began to laugh. In the hall were stone carvings of various demonic spirits. There were actual statues in the middle of the room. There was statue that depicted a demon with a bald humanoid and pale skin. Its eyes were black, its jaw was stretched wide in a painful manner, and the neck was extended far forward. The demon's arms were small stubs and his legs were bent in a crouching posture, though it was still somewhat larger than Shiro. Although its eyes were hollow and the statue was indeed lifeless, it seemed to stare directly at Shiro, as if acknowledging him. The statue to the left depicted a black winged succubus. She had a monochrome color scheme with black eyes and long black hair. Her body was barely covered by lacy clothing and she had grey jewels covering her nipples. The demon statue also had small black bat wings coming out of the side of her head and a black devil-like tail with a grey heart-shaped tip. She was rendered to appear as if she was hovering in the air.
The statue to the left depicted the final demon. The statue was humanoid, strangely wearing clothing similar to Shiro's outfit when he had entered the class. His head and hands were depicted to be covered in white fire, with his hands stretching outwards. His head was expertly rendered, and the stone flames almost appeared to be alive if one looked out of the corner of their eyes. They stood in a circle, waiting, watching. Shiro strode up to the demon statues and knelt onto the ground, clenching his fist over his heart and bowing before the unholy trio. Shiro stood up and entered the circle. There at the feet of the demons, was a chest. The keyhole was unique in shape, and Shiro examined the knife. It seemed to be a perfect match. He inserted the knife and turned it counterclockwise, as per the instructions told.
"They were smart in keeping the location of the chest out of those notes, but not smart enough…" Shiro sneered as the chest opened up.
Inside the chest were papers yellowed with age. On the sheets of paper were old symbols written onto it, and a depiction of a ritual. Shiro's eyes gleamed as he took the papers out. There was a bronze key beneath the papers. The bronze had deteriorated slightly with age, and it was attached to a silver beaded necklace. Each bead had a runic symbol carved into it and Shiro pocketed the key. His work here was done, and he would need to cover up the evidence that this place existed. Shiro reset everything and exited the room. Huh, Chouji's corpse was missing, along with the blood. Shiro shrugged, and made sure one last time that he had left behind no physical evidence that he had been there. Shiro then began to cause an artificial collapse, breaking the already stressed beams with ease, and burying the room for good. He walked off into the night, with a sinister smile on his face. The next day, Info-Chan woke up to find an alert. She read it and sighed, Chouji was dead.
"And so, the plot thickens…" Info-Chan sighed, she was at a loss. "Maybe Masami DID stumble onto something…"
She read the report and began to contact others. She got word from her informant and asked when the information would be sent over to her.
"I'm having some difficulty, sorry." Rei apologized to Info-Chan. "I've been having difficulty because I actually don't live in Japan."
"You don't?" Info-Chan asked, her brows furrowing in confusion.
"Yeah, I'm American." Rei admitted, and Info-Chan paused. That was one hell of a bomb to drop.
"Y-you speak excellent Japanese…" Was all Info Chan could say back.
"I've had lots of practice." Rei told, and there was an awkward silence. "K. Bye!"
Rei hung up and Info-Chan kept the phone to her ear for a moment, well, this complicated things. Info-Chan began devising a plot, but unfortunately, she needed someone to preform recon. Info-Chan sighed and began playing a movie. She watched it for a little bit, and suddenly a news broadcast was aired.
"Breaking News! Local teen found dead inside the wreckage of Ritsumeikan Senior High." The newswoman announced. "Local police report that the teen was found in the South Wing with a puncture wound to his abdomen."
"A puncture wound?" Info-Chan wondered, "Was there another assassin?"
"The doctors ruled out homicide, and believe that the death was accidental." The newswoman continued, and Info-Chan rolled her eyes. "They believe that Chouji Matsuuji may have taken a fall, and that's when the support structure pierced his abdomen, and bled to death moments later."
Info-Chan began to pace around her room, there was too much information, and not enough data to connect it though. Kenji had murdered Masami, and was found dead by Carbon Monoxide poisoning. Chouji went to investigate the school bombing, and ended up dead by an accident. Shiro was looking for something, and had found a secret passage in the school. But was he connected to this? Or was he an unrelated variable? She wrote down the notes and continued her movie. Sunday passed without incident, and she got a message from Rei telling her that she would probably have to have someone preform recon in a week if she still couldn't find anything. Saturday morning passed by without any further incident, and Info-Chan kept monitoring the school for anything out of the ordinary. She had Rei do a quick background check for the parents of the school, but none showed up to be military or worked with chemicals, so that lead seemed to be a dead end.
It was around noon when Info-Chan found something worthwhile, Shiro and Osoro were hanging out at the school, which amused Info-Chan. The two were smoking and drinking, and quite generally having a good time. Info-Chan was surprised to see the two had become fast friends, but then again, Shiro could easily pass of as a delinquent. He was dangerous, probably more dangerous than all of the other delinquents. Although Osoro was the literal definition of "Shit-Faced Wasted", Shiro seemed to have a clear head still. The two eventually staggered off and Info-Chan wondered what chaos these two would cause, now that they were most likely drunk. She got up from her computers and cooked some ramen for lunch, it was a boring day today for Info-Chan despite the mystery she was currently immersed in. She turned on the TV and began watching a movie, it really didn't bother her that she was alone most of the time. Info-Chan's day passed by without further discrepancies and her mom came home. That's all she had for a parent, and usually the two ignored each other. They had things to do. Info-Chan went up to her room and began browsing the internet on her computer, eventually ending up reading FanFiction on it. The one that had currently captured her attention was where there was a kid trapped on a cruise ship full of biologically mutated monsters. It seemed to be from the perspective of an old ally of the kid, and she was currently on chapter 10. The once ally made a recording saying that he was surprised that the kid had survived the destruction of a city. Info-Chan read through the Fanfiction and sighed, soon the author would upload.
Info-Chan had calculated that the author liked to take about two weeks to write the fanfiction, probably to make sure that he could spellcheck, make improvements, and had probably decided two weeks were just long enough to create suspense without prolonging the plot too much. Something he was good at Info-Chan mused. She closed her computer and went to bed, there was nothing more to do for today. She woke up early on Sunday and noticed that someone had tried to find her info again, which was starting to get a little creepier now. Info-Chan wondered if somehow Shiro knew that she was there when he had uncovered a few of the school's secrets. There was just something odd about him, something that bothered Info-Chan in a way she just couldn't vocalize. He had an air of monachopsis about him, as if he didn't seem to belong anywhere, and that smile… that smile just unnerved her. Info-Chan shook her head, no, better not let things get to her head. Yet, even with the darker thoughts, Sunday passed by almost too quickly. Info-Chan's phone buzzed, it was an alert, the author had just posted again. She read the chapter and smiled, the plot was thickening again, and the author had left his readers at a massive cliffhanger. Something big would happen in this next chapter. Info-Chan sighed and went to bed, she woke up early the next Monday morning and preformed her daily routine. She unlocked the doors to the Info Club and began monitoring the students. Oh, there was something new… A girl with orange twintails that reached her knees was walking alongside Taro, something very dangerous. The ends of her hair faded into a small yellow gradient, and her hair was tied up in thin pink scrunchies with white polka dots. She also wore a small red bow on the right side of her head.
The girl wore salmon pink stockings with white polka dots, and black shoes. Her name was Osana Najimi, and her sights were set on Taro. She was Taro's childhood friend, and lived next door to him. Despite their closeness however, Osana was actually quite rude and harsh towards Taro; she always seemed to be easily irritated and quick to anger when he was around. Ayano figured that she was a Tsundere, and would use this against her newest rival with gusto. She watched as the crowd parted, Osoro Shidesu had arrived. Shiro was the only one to approach her, and they walked off together, earning strange looks not only from the students, but also the faculty. Ayano watched Osana, and noticed that she seemed to be smitten with Taro. She felt like she had swallowed a lead cannonball. She had to get rid of Osana, but just how would she do it?
The poll will soon close. It closes on 2/27/2017 at 11:59PM. Please, if you have not voted for an elimination method, this is your last chance to vote. The losing votes will be mentioned in the next chapter. Agent Archangel and I have recently partnered up since I have plans for Shiro, and just exactly who he is. This will not hinder my ability to write, since I do believe that Agent Archangel will write out Shiro's parts in advance, and we have the ability to communicate outside of FanFiction. I will count your vote unnamed Guest, but please, if need, create a profile so you can properly vote. Please leave a review in the review section, that shall be all dear readers. Until next time. ~Agent Zenith