"Good morning everyone..." I yawned and made my way to my desk, "You seem tired." I looked up to see Kirigiri looking at me. I scratched the back of my head and chuckled, "Yeah... I may have to get used to living somewhere new." She gave me a questioning look, "Good morning Naegi! Good morning Kirigiri!" Entering the classroom was Aoi Asahina.
I returned her smile and greeting, "Good morning Asahina!" Kirigiri looked back down at her notebook, "Good morning." Asahina gave a giant grin before sitting at her desk. I looked out of the window and occasionally greeted my classmates as they came in. Although I was growing bored very fast...
"Hey Kirigiri? ..." She just kept writing in her notebook. I leaned forward a bit to see what she's was doing, she turned around quickly only a few inches from my face. "Might I ask what you think you're doing?" She looked slightly embarrassed yet still keeping her iron mask on, her tone was also very stern and sharp, "S-sorry! I was just curious what you were doing!" She gave me one last stern look before returning to her writing, "I'm writing down my thoughts and speculations on certain people." I raised my eyebrow, "Certain people?" She turned around to face me again, "Our classmates. I'm studying behavior, attitude, and social circles." That may have sounded creepy coming from anyone else, but she made it sound pretty impressive.
"Wow, that's really cool..." she stopped writing for a second, "Cool?" I flinched fearing a death glare, "What I meant w-was, seeing your detective skills at work!" She went back to writing. I sighed in relief, "You are quite odd." I laughed lightly, "You think? To be honest I think I'm pretty ordinary." I felt my phone go off. I took it out of my pocket and looked at the message, 'Meet me at the field vending machines at 5:00 pm' well it seems now we have our meeting planned. I put my phone in my pocket as the rest of the students walked in.
Geez... I never thought school could get more boring. I started packing my stuff in my bag when Maizono was standing over my desk, "Hey Naegi! We should go out and get coffe!" I was taken aback, "R-really?!" She smiled and nodded, "We definitely need to catch up! It's been so long since we've seen eachother!" I probably had a big dumb look on my face, until I realized the meet up today...
"Sure that'd be great! But uh maybe tomorrow? Sorry I've already made plans..." she didn't look disappointed thankfully. She just smiled and said, "Sounds great!" We waved goodbye as she left the classroom, "You two seem to get along." Kirigiri stated while collecting her things, "Y-you think? We knew eachother in middle school. Not that well, but it's great she remembers me!" She mumbled something under her breath, the only word I understood was careful. She stood up and began walking out of the classroom. I sat there confused, and then I looked at the clock and it was getting close to meet up time. I grabbed my stuff and made my way towards the meet up spot.
"Ah, right on time." I was a little out of breath running over this far out of the field, "Thanks... so what're we doing today?" Togami started looking at something on his phone, "I did some research on both Hinata and Teika. Absolutely no connection. Same with our other lead miss Sato Eko, both victims have no connection to Mr. Teika. Some of the other students have claimed to be verbally abused, but only a handful of cases are physical. Why do those students get "special attention"? There has to be a factor here that we're missing..." I thought for a second trying to think of something, "Well... I guess we won't know unless we ask around." Togami smirked, "Yes, I believe we need to have a chat with Mr. Hinata." We began walking back toward the reserve course building.
We walked around the building until finally finding Hinata sitting at a table in the cafeteria. Togami took the lead, "Hinata, I presume?" He looked like hell. He barely lifted his head to look at us, "H-huh?" It was really hard to look at. It made my stomach turn thinking that a teacher did this... "We... we'd like to talk about the abuse rumors if you could spare us some time." He suddenly jolted, "I don't know what you're talking about..." Togami sighed, "Please don't play dumb with us. Obviously just from looking at you, we know these aren't just rumors." He started to clench his fists, "Stay out of it!" He looked up at us, "Please... just stay out of it." I can't even imagine what this guy has been through... "We just want to help. Okay, how about if the rumors are true, you just stay quiet? If not, you can deny it. So, are the rumors true?" I watched him open his mouth as if he was about to say something...
but no words ever came out. "..." Togami adjusted his glasses again, "We'll take that as your answer then. Thank you for your time. We won't disturb you any more." We started to walk away going over what to do next.
Togami sighed, "While we have met with the victim, we still have no idea why he was singled out." I nodded in agreement, "And we can't ask Sato because Koizumi asked us not too..." Togami looked slightly frustrated, "Well I suppose we'll just have to keep digging." Suddenly we were yanked into a dark storage closet.
"W-who are you?!" I frantically tried to get a good look at the person who pulled us in. Suddenly the lights flicked on, "So it's true. Why couldn't that bastard just tell me himself?" The person who dragged us in was a blond girl with blush marks on her cheeks, and apparently had a bit of a colorful vocabulary. Togami gave her one of his famous glares, "How dare you put your hands on me in such a way! Do you know who I am?!" She pulled out a knife and put it up to Togami's throat, "Do you know who I AM?! I'm Natsumi Kuzuryu bitch!" Togami took a moment to look even somewhat shocked, "Kuzuryu? You mean, the Yakuza clan?" She smiled wide, "That's right rich boy. Although I didn't pull you in for a fight. Believe it or not I wanted to thank you." She thankfully put the knife away, I guess just using it to scare the piss out of us.
I was a little scared and confused, "Thank... us?" She nodded, "That guy you just got done interrogating is a friend of mine. No matter how hard I tried he wouldn't spill what was eating at him, and leaving him beat and bruised. I had my strong suspicions but could never get him to give me proof. And then you schmucks walk in and almost get a confession! Almost makes me jealous..." Togami looked irritated again, "Schmucks? How inventive." I leaned towards Togami, "I don't think I have to remind you not to piss off the Yakuza, but I'll do it anyways. Please stop!" Togami rolled his eyes, "Geez you two are weird. Anyways I'll take it from here. I'll call some people and have Mr. Teika taken care of." Me and Togami both looked at her in shock, "You don't mean?!" I know she's part of the mob but she really wouldn't..
"A hit. Yeah. Tomorrow those abuse cases will be a thing of the past. Thanks to you boys I have the proof I need to set up the contract, so thanks again!" I stepped forward, "Wait! Can't we find evidence and convict him with it?! No one has to die!" She sighed nonchalantly, "Do you honestly think that'll solve anything. My way is the easy way." I felt something build up in my gut, and there was an urge to let it out, "But it's not the right way!"
Everything went quiet... she slowly turned around and looked me dead in the eyes, "You know..." I tensed up realizing what I just said, "...you sound just like him." I blinked not expecting that reaction, "Him.. ?" She smiled, "Yeah. My brother... Look." she turned so she was facing the back wall, "If you guys are so sure you can find evidence and convict him, then I suppose I can hold off on the hit." My mouth was gaping open like an idiot, "Really?!" She turned around with a smug smile on her face, "Yup. But! You only have twenty days. After your time limit is up, so is Mr. Teika's life. So just convict him before then and no one has to die." She started walking out of the room before turning around, "It should be easy for Ultimates like yourselves." We just looked at eachother letting everything sink in.
I felt a cold shiver go down my spine, "It's the fourteenth of April, meaning we only have until the fourth of May." Togami only slightly shaken up opened the door back up, "We don't have time to just sit around looking up research. We're going to the root of the problem. Mr. Teika." Someone's life is on the line now... we have to solve this right away.