CHAPTER 2: "Just to get a Glimpse beyond this Illusion."

SATURDAY MORNING. 10:46 A.M.

"Eh?" The man at the bar raised his eyebrow at the name. "Atsuhiko-san? Can't say I've heard of him."

"He may have used an alias," Shinjuurou asked, "something along the lines of 'Toppa Mai Gane'?"

That got a reaction, "Why're you coppers lookin' for Gane-kun? He didn't go get himself caught up in anything dangerous, has he?"

"He's dead," Inga said helpfully.

"He's what?!" The barkeep reacted suddenly to the news. "Wha...Dead...?"

"He was found dead this morning in a hotel room using that Alias," Katawase informed the owner of a certain Strip Joint, "his real name is Atsuhiko, Hirokazu."

"I...I see..." The woman who owned the place frowned deeply. "Well, I don't know much about this Atsuhiko person, but Gane-kun is quite the tipper!"

"Was he in here last night with this woman by any chance?" Katawase showed the sketch of the woman.

"Hm...Can't say that I recognize her," The woman shook her head, "she's not one of my girls, if that's what you're asking."

"She's just a person of interest," Katawase said as she folded the sketch back up to put into a pocket.

"What for?"

"She's the last person to have seen him alive," Shinjuurou said to a Waitress at a nearby restaurant.

"Ah, well, I can't say that I know her personally," the Waitress said, "but Gane-kun usually came in with a friend when he ate here!"

"Got a name?" Inga asked.

"It's...um..." The Waitress blushed, "I'd rather not say."

"Let me guess," Shinjuurou frowned, "another in-appropriate alias?"

"It's...fairly obvious, really. But nobody complains as long as the credit cards check out," The Waitress said.

"Do you have any receipts?" Katawase asked at a gas-station.

"Um, I think so," The guy at the cash register checked through the old-fashioned log book- "Dad's been hounding on me to write all this stuff down ever since all of our equipment came to life..."

"Yeah, funny thing that," Katawase cracked a grin, "my Phone turned into a blue bird."

"Lemme guess," The guy smiled, "Twitter?"

"Nailed it in one," Katawase laughed.

"What about the security cameras?" Inga asked the manager of the restaurant.

"Those things?" The man jabbed a thumb up at the security camera on the wall- "Decoys we had to put up after our last ones sprouted wings and took off to God knows where."

"Right," Inga frowned. "So you don't have any footage of the guy then?"

"Nope."

"Sigh," Katawase folded the sketch once more, "thanks for your time." She said to the bouncer of a night club within walking distance of the hotel. She turned around and walked up to where Shinjuurou and Inga were waiting by the car. "Well, that's the last shady place of business within walking distance of the crime scene," she said with a grumble, "you guys got anything?"

"Not much," Shinjuurou shook his head, "other than an alias for Atsuhiko's friend and a few credit card numbers under both aliases."

"These guys covered their tracks pretty well," Inga remarked- "makes me think that they've got something to hide."

"Probably an attempt to keep their real lives separate from their oh-so-religious time spent down here," Katawase waved her hand around at the city in vague motions before stuffing it into her pocket.

"Which means that Atsuhiko's probably someone with a life somewhere," Shinjuurou agreed. "What about his driver's license? Didn't it have a home address listed on it?"

"I've got someone running the address down now," Katawase said with a shrug, "So we'll see if it's a real place or not."

"You think he'd really layer on aliases like that?" Shinjuurou asked.

"Yeah, I think he would," Katawase said with a frown. "Anyways, you guys should get back to those lovely girls of yours. I'll give you a call if anything comes up."

"Thanks," Shinjuurou nodded. "I'm sure Rie would appreciate it."

"Tell her 'Hi' for me, by the way!" Katawase added.

"Sure thing," Shinjuurou agreed.

THURSDAY EVENING. 7:42 P.M.

Handcuffs.

I couldn't believe that Rika was actually putting forward handcuffs as the only plausible solution.

"Since we'll all mostly be fast asleep," Rika explained, "the easiest way to keep Yukimura from slipping away is to deliberately set the sleeping arrangements up in such a way that she can't escape from the room! So! Two of us will handcuff ourselves to Yukimura at one end of the room, and the rest will fix themselves up in obstructive places in front of the door!"

"And-" I can't believe Kodaka was going along with this, let alone promoting it! "-just to be on the safe side, I've already talked Kobato and Maria into staying in another room with the keys to the cuffs."

"Sounds reasonable to me," The Cow said- of course you'd be okay with this!- crossing her arms under her chest and nodding. "So how are we doing this?"

At the moment, we were all in the The Cow's house's Kitchen, the five of us standing by the door as we watched Yukimura eat a bowl of soup alongside an oddly cooperative Kobato and Maria, who were chatting to keep Yukimura distracted.

"Cuffing arm to arm," Kodaka said, "the two of us who're with Yukimura should be ones who are more comfortable on the floor, since I don't think three of us could fit on any of the beds here properly."

"Rika's slept in stranger places than on the floor, and since she was planning on being cuffed to Yukimura too, that won't be a problem for Rika!" Rika said with a bit of a chipper voice. What the hell, girl?

"Eh..." The Cow scratched at her cheek. "The floor doesn't really sit well with me..."

"You'll do it," I said decisively.

"Y-Yozora!" The Cow protesteth too mucheth. "Don't just decide things like that for someone!"

"We're deciding it for Yukimura without talking to her about it, aren't we?" I hit her insult right back at her.

"Eh, true..." The Cow relented, but then wound up for another throw. "But still, wouldn't someone else be better suited for it? Why don't you do it!?"

"Me!? Of all the nerve, Meat...!"

"Oi, oi," Kodaka stepped in. "Don't fight. I should probably be the other one to do it anyways, since I was the one to catch her..."

Not a chance!

"No way!" The Cow said- "What if Yukimura manages to slip out of the cuffs? You need to be one of the door guards so she can't run off!"

That was actually a well-thought-out idea, even if I disagreed with the logic entirely.

"Agreed!" I said, and I felt dirty for agreeing with the Cow like that. "We can't take the chance!"

"But then that puts us right back at the problem of who joins Rika in sleeping with Yukimura," Rika reminded us. Yes- thank you for that.

"Like I said, she'll do it," I jabbed a thumb at The Cow.

"Oi," Oh dear, The Cow seems to be growling! "I'll only do it if you do it!"

What?

"You heard me!" The Cow repeated- "I'll only chain myself to Yukimura if you do it too!"

Is she-? "Are you seriously trying to turn this into a competition!?"

"If you seriously want me to do this, for no good valid reason, that's my one condition!" Such pride coming from a Milk Producing Animal...! "Otherwise, I'll relent on the door guard thing and let Kodaka get cuffed like he suggested."

I could feel the gears of my brain lock up then- I couldn't let Kodaka be handcuffed to two girls at once, even if it was only to one via association...!

But...Kodaka just... why did he look so disappointed in me?

SATURDAY MORNING. 11:08 A.M.

"You just can't help but get the feeling that there's something missing," Rie said into the phone as she observed the recepie book infront of her. Why was she even trying to bake in the first place? To be productive? To fill the hours? To learn a new set of skills that would one day soon be necessary?

No- it was the simple fact that cravings had already set in and she wanted cake.

Not just any cake either.

She wanted a cake that never existed before in the history of cakes.

Rie Kaishou wanted a Half-Chocolate, Half-Red Velvet Cake that had Croutons floating in it.

Cooked Bread Crumbs, in a half-and-half mixture of Chocolate and Red Velvet batter.

What monstrosity had her cravings brought into existence?

Well, that was what she was asking her husband-to-be over the phone.

"Ah...Missing?" Shinjuurou asked over the line.

"Yeah!" Rie nodded, though it could not be seen, "Like I'm missing some final ingredient to make it all come together!"

"You're delving into dangerous territory here, Rie," Shinjuurou warned her, "one wrong move and your cake could end up as flat as a pancake...!"

"Pancakes..." Rie's eyes widened slightly- "That's it! I'll add Pancake batter into it too!"

"Wait- I didn't-"

"Thank you, Shinjuurou!" Rie blew a kiss into the phone, "I'll see you when you get home!" And with that, she hung up. She then looked around the kitchen, "Now where's the flour at...?"

"I'd recommend against putting Pancake batter in," I said from the other side of the counter, where I presently sat reading a book. "The reaction between flavors might become off putting."

"Well what do you suggest then?" Rie asked of me.

I thought it over for a moment, then said, "Buttermilk."

"Just Plain Buttermilk!?" Rie asked, somewhat incredulous...and then, "You know, that might be better than using Pancake mix...!" And as she turned to the fridge to see if we had any buttermilk, I gave a sigh of relief.

One disaster adverted...hopefully?

THURSDAY EVENING. 9:42 P.M.

Awkward.

I just don't know how else to put that feeling.

I'd gotten out of class- gone to the clubroom at An-chan's school- and...

I found myself alone in the room with Maria Takayama- that "Holy Nun" who was always hanging around An-chan...!

Nobody else was around. (Where were they? If only I had looked out a window.) So...naturally... We started to fight.

Things had been said, I'll admit, that someone of my...standing shouldn't have said.

"I'M JEALOUS THAT YOU'VE GOT BIGGER BREASTS THAN I DO!"

Especially to a Nun, let alone a Nun who's a teacher.

But, then...

The next thing I knew, the bell tower was ringing, and I had her pinned underneath me and...well... I was biting her.

On the tongue.

Things seemed to escalate from there. I might have actually drank some of her blood? Aaannd maybe, just slightly, convinced her that she was my blood slave now...?

...For a moment, she'd just stared up at me as if I'd broken her tiny heart, and I had to wonder if she couldn't even understand the basics of Roll Play and then I started to realize that I'd just french'd a NUN and drank her blood!

Then Maria just asked, "Does that mean I'm not a Nun anymore?" in the most...not angry and actually kind of cute tone of voice at all?

I panicked and just nodded, then...then...

She started biting and kissing me back!

I had no idea what to think of all of that, but then... An-chan came back and told us that we were going over to Sena's, and then neither Maria or me had a chance to really even talk about what we'd just done...!

Now, it was hours later and An-chan was entrusting us with keys to handcuffs so that Yukimura couldn't escape or something...? Was something wrong with her? It doesn't matter.

Now Maria and I were alone. In a bed room...No chance of An-chan or the others coming in to interrupt us.

I guess now was a good of a chance as any to talk...

Right?

"So..." I began about as smoothly as possible.

"So..." She echoed just about as equally.

"What are we going to do about these keys?" That...had not been what I wanted to start with.

"Hm..." Maria thought for a moment- then, "Do we have any loose string?"

The only loose threads I had with me were strings that tied the back of my dress together...So I suggested that we use those since we should be going to sleep soon anyways.

And use them we did.

The two little handcuff keys became matching necklaces within a few moments.

"There! Now we can wear them!" Maria grinned.

And I realized in that moment that I had really poor impulse control...

SATURDAY AFTERNOON. 12:15 P.M.

"I realize that cravings lower impulse control," Inga said with awe as he stared at the zebra-striped cake before him, "but I didn't actually think you were serious when you said Rie was making a hybrid cake, Shinjuurou! That's so awesomeeeeeee" He reached out to touch it, only for Kazamori to slap his hand away from the cake.

"Don't touch it, or you'll burn your hand!" Kazamori warned him.

"Aw, come onnn!"

"Seems like they were practically made for each other sometimes, weren't they?" I giggled while Shinjuurou just smiled faintly.

"Yeah, seems like it," Shinjuurou said as Inga and Kazamori began arguing back and forth about what to put on the cake for decoration. (Once it had cooled, of course.)

"So what's the case about?" I asked, and Inga tensed up at the question- stumbling across one of his comebacks rather horribly.

"Ah, just a guy under an alias who we think got killed by the girl he was having sex with the night before," Shinjuurou summarized nonchalantly. "We've only got a sketch to go off of, but the initial report made it seem like the woman was Yuuko-san."

"You mean...?" My eyes widened ever so slightly, while Kazamori's narrowed rather noticeably.

"The girl that Inga possessed just as she died," Shinjuurou said flatly. "We were worried for a moment that with Inga's powers on the wind, they might have condensed down back into Yuuko's body and started on a wild rampage, but since the sketch doesn't match...the only concern really is how the body got the way it did."

The Phone rang.

"Hello?" Shinjuurou greeted.

"Hey, Detective," I said as I got out of my car and started walking towards an apartment building's entrance, "turns out the address on the driver's license is a place that was sold recently. So that was a bust."

"Please tell me it's not a complete dead end?"

"Nope, I tracked down the former owners- Atsuhiko's parents. Get this- they moved to work in Europe while lil' 'Kazu took third year classes at Saint Chronica Acadamy, a major Catholic school a few towns over."

"Somehow Atsuhiko doesn't strike me as the religious type," Shinjuurou mused. "Does he have any friends?"

"Yeah, older guy named Matsuda, Buriki, graduated two years earlier," I pulled the door open to the building and went inside, "I'm heading to his apartment right now. Atsuhiko was staying there for classes, according to his parents."

"How'd they take the news that he was dead?" Shinjuurou asked.

"Eh, about as well as you can expect over the phone," I said as I flashed my badge to the woman at the front desk. "The Mom's coming back to Japan to collect the body and take it back with her first chance she gets, but you know how the international flights are these days."

"Unreliable and Testy," Shinjuurou grumbled.

"Yeah, so, I doubt she'll be getting in until after we solve the case," I frowned, "I didn't have the heart to tell her how we found him anyways."

"What did you say?"

"Classified." I then turned to the woman at the desk and said, "Hi, I need to speak with Matsuda, Buriki? Room T-4b?"

"Ouch," Shinjuurou remarked.

"One moment..." The woman went into the back.

"Anyways," I said as the woman brought up a key from the back, and stepped out from behind her desk to take me up to the room. "I'll drop by later to let you know what Matsuda has to say about last night's little adventure. I'm pretty tired on my feet as it is, I could use the break."

"Using us as a rest stop, eh?"

"Hey! Now," I rolled my eyes, "it's easier for me to come your way than for you to come meet me."

"Yeah yeah, whatever you say."

"Yeah, that's the Witch who strolled into the bar last night," Buriki Matsuda said with a nod at the sketch. "Wouldn't surprise me that she killed him."

"Did you catch her name, by any chance?" I asked.

"Eh, called herself Yuuko something," The older man scratched at his chin, "honestly, I barely understood a thing she said. Kazu, though... I don't know what kind of spell she wove on him, but he was enchanted the moment she opened her mouth."

"Hence the 'Witch' comment?"

"Yup," Matsuda nodded.

"Why exactly were you taking an underage student into the Night-Life district?" I had to ask.

"Eh, it was a..." There was a shifty look in his eyes, then he asked, "Off the record?"

"Off the record," I nodded.

"Honestly? It was better that I took Kazu out to those places supervised than let him prowl around at school," Matsuda explained. "Kazu was...troubled, to say the least."

"And the aliases?"

"It's that part of town where you don't want to use your real name..." Matsuda chuckled, "plus, the kind of guy Kazu was? It was better for him to use an alias than tarnish his 'good' name, if he ever had one."

"Was Hirokazu in any kind of trouble at school?"

"Damn straight- first year he nearly got expelled for skirt chasing which wouldn't have been so bad in of itself if he hadn't found out that the skirts were the only things the girls were wearing," Matsuda shook his head. "Kid thought that just because his parents were out of the country that nobody could reign him in. Soon as I found out about that, though, I told him otherwise before things got worse than a harsh reprimand..."

"Did it work?"

"I never got a single complaint from the school after I started taking him out to the bars," Matsuda shrugged.

Huh.

"Do you think this girl might be someone from the school?" Reasonable question.

"Not possible," Matsuda shook his head, "Kazu didn't recognize her...And trust me, Kazu would've panicked if he recognized her from school."

"A family member of someone from there, then?"

"That might be more likely," Matsuda frowned, "but I wouldn't know for sure."

"So, after this... Yuuko girl showed up, what happened next?"

"It was like Kazu got put under a spell," Matsuda said, "one second he was going on about this film some underclassmen of his were filming for their club, and the next he was drooling over every word she was saying. I knew something was up, but..."

"Why did you let him out of your sight?" Katawase asked.

"I blacked out," Matsuda confessed.

"Too much to drink?" Katawase inquired.

"No, I'm the designated driver every single time. I had to remain sober," Matsuda said. "What happened was...just...I just suddenly woke up standing there hours later when someone shook me and said they were closing...Apparently I'd just been standing there staring off into space for hours."

"Hence the witch thing?"

"Hence the witch thing."

"Well, thank you for your time," I bowed.

"You catch the bitch who killed Kazu, okay?" Matsuda insisted.

"We'll do our best."

And that's a promise.

"Atsuhiko may have been a perverted jerk, but nobody deserves to go out that way," Rie said before putting a spoonful of cake into her mouth.

"Agreed," I said with a grimace- "I don't like the fact that the girl's using the name Yuuko though."

"Back to square one, then?" Katawase asked, Touch-screen Cellphone in hand as she read up on something.

"Something like that," I sighed.

"So what about that school, Saint Chroma's?" Rie asked.

"Saint Chronica's," Katawase corrected as she paged through info on her phone- "nothing too out of the ordinary at a casual glance, although..."

"Although?" Rie frowned.

"The School is closed from yesterday to Monday due to an attempted suicide leap off of one of the bell towers," Katawase frowned. "Classes are expected to resume then, with Clubs the following Wednesday."

"Suicide attempt?" I asked. "By whom?"

"Ident's being with-held from the news by the Chairman," Katawase frowned at the School's MyFace page, "Rumors seem to be that friends of the Chairman's daughter saved whoever it was that leaped off of the tower.

"Great," Rie said with a frown, "another coverup. Just what we needed."

"I think it's mostly to protect the kids from any harassment," I guessed.

"Yeah, that's standard O.P. for something like this," Katawase nodded in agreement. "Withholding a name, I mean. I could pull some strings to get the kid's name, but I doubt they're this "Yuuko" girl we're looking for."

"Well, I guess we'll have to wait until the school re-opens," I said with a sigh. "I can't imagine what the kids there are going to think when they find out a student died after a suicide was interupt-" He stopped mid sentence.

"You don't think...?" Rie began.

"That the Death might have transferred to some unlucky student?" It was a distinct possibility.

"Wait wait wait-" Katawase interrupted. "That's really treading into supernatural territory here. Deaths can't jump from person to person, and even if they could, the type of death is completely wrong!"

"You mean shriveling up into a corpse rather than suffering injuries from a fall?" Rie asked.

"Yeah, That," Katawase said and I could just imagine her holding up a sign with an arrow pointing upwards with the text "Yeah, That," Written beneath it.

"That's true," I grumbled, "I guess we really are back at Square One, aren't we?"

"Well, unless "Yuuko" decides to kill again, we are until the school opens up," Katawase agreed.

"And so we wait."

There was a sudden crash from another room and I frowned at the sudden string of curses that followed it, "Inga, Kazamori?"

"It's nothing!" Inga yelled- "I just dropped something-"

"Dropped!? You tripped over a power cord and broke the lamp on the floor!" Kazamori yelled back at him.

"Not again," Rie sighed as they started arguing about who dropped what when and where.

"Are they okay?" Kazamori asked.

"It's been getting worse lately," I grumbled.

"Kazamori's just not really..." Rie paused as there was a loud yell of "FINE!" and Inga came storming out, muttering about having to buy a new lamp for Kazamori's nightstand. The door slammed behind him roughly. "...all that used to the mood swings."

"If I ever get a boyfriend who isn't afraid of me being the Police Chief," Katawase began, then stopped. "No, wait. Never mind. I've resigned myself to that never happening."

"I'm sure it'll happen one day," I said as Rie and I both put a hand on her shoulders comfortingly.

"Yeah yeah, save it for another time, Lovebirds." I grumbled at them.