A/N: I like this chapter better than the last... Even if it is still pretty short.

On another note: Don't shoot me when I don't update again for a very long while. I'm about to head back to college (I leave Thursday) so I won't have as much time to work on this.

Those of you who reviewed last chapter? Yeah, you know who you are! I love you guys! :D

If you understand the clue at the end without having to google it, then you are probably amazing. ;)

Disclaimer: Hm. Yeah, definitely don't own it...

Chapter Five
Circles

Satoshi glanced up from his novel when the default ringtone started to play from his phone. Picking it up from his desk, he frowned at the number on the screen. Normally, he wouldn't pick up if it wasn't a number in his contacts (or at least one he recognized), but… He sighed. It could be Houtarou…

He pressed the talk button with his thumb. "Moshimoshi."

"Satoshi? It's me."

He almost fell off of his chair. "Houtarou?!"

"Yeah. Look, I'm sorry I haven't –."

"We know," Satoshi interrupted. "You couldn't."

"Then you found my note?"

"Yeah. Almost didn't though… Houtarou, what's going on? Where are you?"

A sigh on the other end. "I can't talk long – I'm not supposed to be talking to you at all, and if my parents find out… Well, I won't have my phone anymore."

"Houtarou…"

"I can't tell you, Satoshi. I'm not allowed to tell you where I am, and I can't tell you what's going on because I don't know myself. That's why I called. I need your help – everyone's help."

Satoshi's eyebrows rose. "Name it. You know we'll help if we can."

Another sigh. "Good. Okay. All I know is that something happened sixteen years ago. Something that even my sister knows about, but I don't. I'm missing something – some clue that'll solve everything. All I know is that something happened sixteen years ago, that we've moved twice because of me. I can't think straight right now… I know I'm missing something, though…"

Satoshi frowned. Had he ever heard his friend so distraught before? "Well, when we went to your house – sorry for the searching thing, by the way – we did come up with a theory…" He paused. "Do you remember that day before you left when you told us about that phone call from an uncle you'd never met?"

"I remember."

"We went there a couple of days later and, thanks to the phone bill on the table, we think he was the same person that had called seventeen times more in those couple of days. He didn't leave any messages, but the number was still there from the missed calls."

"Nani?"

"And when Chitanda-san went back the following day, she said she met some strange guy outside at the end of the driveway who was looking for your family. Do you think it's connected?" Silence. "…Houtarou?" More silence. He pulled the phone away from his ear and glanced at the screen. Call ended. "Houtarou… What happened?"

"… And then he either lost service, or someone must've been headed his way, because the call was ended. And I'm willing to bet it was the latter since he didn't call me back."

"What do we do then?" Eru asked. "It's not like we have anything to go on, especially since Oreki-san doesn't seem to know any more than we do…"

"It has to be connected somehow, though," Mayaka mused. "It's too big of a coincidence. Somehow that call must have prompted the move… It has something to do with Oreki… He's the one who answered the phone that day… And that strange man Chii-chan ran into outside his house…"

"But the call was from someone he didn't even know," Satoshi pointed out.

"Then his family must be trying to protect him from his 'uncle' for some reason."

Eru sighed. "We've figured that much out in the past. But why?"

"Just like Houtarou," Satoshi muttered. "We're missing something… Something that's probably right in front of our noses, too…"

A knock sounded on the door of the club room before a third-year student stuck his head through the doorway. "Fukube! Did you forget again?" he sighed. "Student Council room. Now."

Satoshi almost fell out of his chair. "Dang it!" He scooped up his bag. "Gomenne! Mata ne!" he shouted as he sprinted out the door.

Mayaka blinked. "What do you suppose that was all about?"

"Hm." Eru shrugged. "Hard to say when it comes to Fukube-san."

Satoshi sighed as he made his way down the empty hall. "Who'd have thought that was going to take so long? Had I known, I would have started it days ago..." The front doors came into sight as he rounded a corner. Passing the front office, a light caught his attention, however, prompting him to pause. Upon first glance he thought perhaps it was only light reflecting off the windows of the office.

But it wasn't.

Normally, it wouldn't be a strange sight to see – a computer on in the office. But at this time of day, when all of the office staff had already gone home, the light from a computer screen was very odd indeed. He crept closer until he was right outside the open door – yet another oddity as the door should have been closed and locked. Pressing his back to the wall, he peered inside.

"So what do you think of the new math teacher?" Eru asked.

"We have a new math teacher?" Mayaka asked, eyebrow raised.

Eru nodded. "I guess the school thought it would be nice to have another? I've heard that they are thinking of hiring more staff…"

"He seems like he's knows what he's doing," Satoshi shrugged.

"You have him too, Fuku-chan?"

"Yup. Really tall guy – dark hair, dark eyes…" He shrugged again. "You'll know him when you see him."

"Did… Did anything seem strange about him to you?" Eru asked quietly.

"Strange? No, not really. Why do you ask?"

"I don't know… I just feel like I've met him before…"

Satoshi frowned. Kurosawa-sensei… His eyes moved from the teacher to the screen. What he saw there made his heart stop and his blood run cold. What the…?!

And then his teacher turned around. "Fukube-san. What are you still doing here?" With a smirk, he added, "And why are you spying on me?"

He stepped from around the corner as the man turned off the computer. "I saw the light and wondered who was in the office since the office staff doesn't stay this late…"

"Ah. Sou desu ka."

"Uhm. If I may ask…"

"Nani?"

"What were you doing? … You had a student file up – for a student that doesn't attend this school anymore."

Kurosawa raised an eyebrow. "Student files can only be accessed from the office. Oreki Houtarou is on the registrar for one of my classes but is never there. I simply wondered as to why that was."

"Then you found what you were looking for?"

"Mostly."

"Oh. Ah, sumimasen, sensei! It was none of my business…"

"He was a friend of yours."

Satoshi looked up in surprise. "Huh? Oh… Hai…"

A beat of silence passed before Kurosawa spoke again. "Well, I'd best be going – and so should you. I'll see you in class tomorrow." He started off. "Don't forget the homework!"

Satoshi stared after him until he had turned a corner and was gone from sight, a frown secured to his face. "Houtarou has been gone for almost two weeks now," he muttered to himself. "There's no way his name would still be on the class registrars…"

"That's definitely strange," Mayaka mused.

Satoshi continued to pace back and forth across the club room's floor. "It doesn't sit right with me. He was looking at Houtarou's file, but definitely not for the reason he gave me."

"Fukube-san," Eru interjected, "what was Kurosawa-sensei wearing when you saw him?"

He paused in his pacing to stare at her. "…The exact same thing he had been wearing all day…" He paused and then added: "And a trench coat – which is odd since the weather is still too warm for such a thing…"

Eru's eyes grew wide. "Was it tan?"

"How did you know that?" he returned in surprise.

"Because I remember why he looks and sounds familiar, Fukube-san. He was the man I ran into outside the Orekis' home!"

"You're sure, Chii-chan?"

"Almost completely positive."

"Then if he really is searching for Houtarou…"

"He probably found out from the file where they sent Oreki's school records!"

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Eru whispered. "What if Oreki-kun is trouble?"

"We'll just have to warn him then." Satoshi whipped out his cell phone from his bag on the desk.

"Chottomatte! You can't, Fuku-chan. You said yourself that he told you if his parents found out he'd been contacting us…"

Satoshi sat down, hands clasped in front of him after setting the phone back down. "Maybe… maybe we can come up with some message that isn't direct…"

"A code of some sort?"

"Right."

"We shouldn't send it from your phone either, Fukube-san. You and Oreki-kun have been friends for a long time, right? So someone else in his family might recognize the number if they happen to see it…"

"But he might not recognize yours or Mayaka's number…"

"I agree with Chii-chan. We'll just have to chance that. Now we just have to figure out the message…"

Houtarou was growing more and more frustrated with each day that passed. His mother carefully avoided the topic, his father flat-out refused to acknowledge his inquiries, and his sister swore she knew nothing else of the matter. In short, he was on the fast track to absolutely nowhere. And it was driving him insane. Without anything to work with, the only place he could go was in circles. And a circle – at least in this case – was not a good place to be.

He wasn't sure how much longer he could take being in the dark, tiny candle flames illuminating just enough so he knew there was something lurking in the blackness around him but not enough to even understand the shape of the thing. It was there, but whatever it was fed off the darkness, and he didn't have enough candles – not enough candles… He couldn't see it – not more than a glimpse, as it darted about in the shadows, just enough to let him know that it was still there. It was enjoying his misery – enjoying playing it's little game with him…

"INCOMING!" A shrill voice startled him out of his melancholy musings. Suddenly very alert, his heart threatening to beat its way out of his chest, his eyes darted around, his mind wondering if the world was suddenly coming to an end.

But no one was around. He was completely alone, sitting in the late-summer grass along the shore of Kagoshima Bay. Slowly his eyes were drawn to the black mobile lying innocently next to his school bag, the screen lit with the message of an incoming text. He stared sourly at the device for scaring him half to death before his conscious reminded him that it was probably his fault that sound was set for message alerts. (Regardless, he would have to plot his revenge on Yoshino-san at a later date – even if it was his own fault that his friend had gotten his hands on his phone…) Picking up the device, he unlocked the screen and opened the message.

His sour expression quickly turned to one of confusion as he stared down at the three-word message.

Judge Lawrence Wargrave

He didn't know how long he stared at the simple name before his eyes wandered to the sender – a number he didn't recognize.

Judge Lawrence Wargrave, he silently mused, fingers absently straying to his bangs. What is that supposed to mean?

~Candles in the Dark~