CHAPTER 3: "Masquerading as a Man with a Reason."
FRIDAY MORNING. 8:18 A.M.
"I've closed school for today," Daddy said to us, "and pushed today's classes back until Monday. I want you all to have the best opportunity possible to sort this whole mess out on your own..."
"Thanks, Daddy!" I said to him.
"We appreciate the courtesy, Kashiwazaki-Sama" Kodaka said with a bow.
"Although, I'm going to have to push club activities back to Wednesday," Daddy then said the few words I didn't want to hear!
"W-what!?"
"It's School policy, dear, I'm afraid," Daddy said. "I can't resume club activities that soon. And the festival...? That might have to be canceled entirely."
"I understand," Kodaka said before I could say anything, "I'll let the others know."
"I'll trust you can keep this situation from getting too far out of control, Kodaka-san?" Daddy asked.
"We'll do our best," was all Kodaka said.
"What was that about!?" I asked as we left Daddy's office.
"It's not like we can argue with the Chairman of the school," Kodaka said. "The Neighbor's Club can wait a few days. And the festival being canceled? That might not be such a bad thing all things considered..."
"What!?" I nearly shouted- gotta keep it contained. Low level. Don't want anyone freaking out now...
"Do you honestly think that anyone would be okay with filming a movie at this point?" Kodaka asked me...And I had to admit, it was a fairly decent point, but even so...
"I still think canceling it is a bad idea in that case," I tried to defend my point, "we might get more attention with the festival being put off than if it wasn't."
"Preaching to the Choir here, Sena," Kodaka shrugged, "I can't do much of anything about it."
"Then I'll speak with the Manager then!" With that- I turned back around to talk to Daddy.
FRIDAY MORNING. 11:08 A.M.
In all honesty, I was dreading what we were about to do.
With Kobato and Maria off elsewhere, Sena trying to convince her father to allow the Festival to continue, and Yozora off in the kitchen seeing if there was any food left for lunch after we'd gone through quite a bit of food at Dinner and Breakfast; Rika and I were going to talk with Yukimura about what had spurred on last night's swan dive off the bell tower.
Somehow, I had a feeling that I wasn't going to like what I heard.
"So, Yukimura," I began about as calmly as I could, "how're you feeling this morning?"
"Functionally Adequate," Yukimura said with a small nod- the picturesque image of sanity that I'd known her to have before.
Even though Rika was keeping quiet through all of this, instead writing things down on a laptop that she'd carried with her, the look she gave me at that comment said that Rika and I were both doubting her sincerity at that comment.
"Would you be okay with telling us what happened last night?" I asked.
Yukimura frowned slightly- I'm guessing she knew what we were trying to do here, and was probably trying to phrase her words specifically...
"I-" She stopped before she even began, then glanced to her left, away from both of us. It was surreal- it seemed like she was looking at someone else in the room, but there was nobody there. Had she really cracked that badly, or...? "Yesterday morning, I told my parents that I found out my true gender."
'Or maybe she was just remembering an event from the night before,' Rika suggested to me when I brought this up later on. Either way...
"Ah," I said, unsure of how to continue off of that.
Thankfully, Yukimura continued on of her own choice.
"I asked them why," she said- knowing that we knew what the 'why' in that sentence was shorthand for- "and..." Yukimura choked up- and I swear that the room got just a touch colder at that moment. "And Mother...She wanted a boy. And Father..."
I really was not liking where this was going.
"He..." Yukimura's hands clenched up tightly, "he said...that I..."
"It's alright," I stopped her before she could relive those memories, "I think we get the picture."
And that was that.
We knew now what made Yukimura try to jump.
I want to say that the rest of Friday, and even the following Saturday, was something to write about- but other than Yukimura moving in with Rika for the foreseeable future, nothing of note happened.
If, say, when we had been retrieving Yukimura's stuff from her house, that her parents had been there to cause some kind of confrontation, that would have been perfectly fitting for this kind of narrative.
But they weren't there.
I want to say that was odd, but given that Yukimura chose that specific time to head over, it was more than likely that she knew they wouldn't be home.
In all honesty- the entire weekend just seemed to blur together despite nothing of importance happening.
I suppose that's what happens when you have a near-death experience climbing up a Bell Tower?
Still, something nagged at the back of my mind.
What had caused that one gate to be broken in like it had been?
Yukimura was nowhere near strong enough to break it- and both she and Rika swore that they had found it that way.
It was almost as if a car had hit it, but there was no way that a car could have even gotten in that far to damage the gate without breaking the building surrounding it...
But I wasn't a detective, figuring out what had caused it would have to be delegated to other people...
And speaking of Detectives, come Monday morning at School, the Chairman delivered a shocking announcement.
"It is my regret to inform you all that Atsuhiko, Hirokazu-san, was tragically killed early Saturday morning. The Police are investigating into his activities over the last month, and I would like to recommend to all of you that if you know anything about that time that you speak to their representatives during their visit. They'll be conducting interviews in the Main Office after lunch bell, and the lunch period will last an extra hour today due to special circumstances."
That came just before the announcements that all Extra Curricular activities were put on hold until Wednesday- although no mention of the festival being canceled was made.
"Atsuhiko-san?" Yozora asked me during the first break between classes- marching right over to my desk and striking up a conversation. "I heard rumors about that guy. Believe it or not, he managed to rack up more embarrassing rumors about himself in less time than you have so far!"
"Don't say that like it's a good thing," I remarked in return. At least my "Delinquent" status had been all but forgotten about for the moment- everyone seemed to be enthralled with Thursday night's "Mystery Suicide" and this Atsuhiko's murder to spread gossip about me.
"I'm just saying, Kodaka!" Yozora remarked- "If only I'd decided to make a "Detective's Club" instead of the Neighbor's club! Imagine that! Two whole mysteries dumped right on our laps in a row!"
"One of those really isn't a mystery," I wanted to say, but kept my mouth silent for a change. Instead, I asked; "So what did this Atsuhiko guy do, dare I ask?"
"Skirt chaser," Yozora said as she twirled with a short strand of hair- a hold over habit from when her hair had been longer. "He's the reason we girls are encouraged to wear underwear to school."
"Eh?" I don't think I want to know why she phrased it like that. Isn't something like that required-? "Wait- no. On second thought, I don't think I want to know," about the status of whether or not the girls at this school are intentionally not wearing their underwear underneath those mini-skirts.
Good grief, I think Rika's perverted personality has started to rub off on me.
"At any rate," Yozora didn't seem to care about how awkwardly I'd phrased my thoughts, and I was thankful for that. "He stoped after a threat of expulsion," She placed her fist into her left hand's palm with a hefty 'thud', "but something tells me that he didn't actually stop his perverted ways...!"
"Did you actually meet this guy?" I asked.
"No, but that's to be expected of a guy a grade higher than us," Yozora remarked.
"So wait- he first caused trouble over two years ago?" Yozora nodded. "And those rumors have persisted all that time?"
"Well, he is...was," Yozora corrected herself, "a student here. It's not like he'd graduated ten years ago or something."
I'm still not sure whether or not I should be relieved by the way she said that.
MONDAY, 11:50 A.M.
"It's kind of weird going to someone elses high school," Rie said as she settled down into a chair.
"I feel weird just being here," I grumbled. "This whole place reminds me too much of the cave Bettenou and I were in."
"Relax, Inga," Shinjuurou said as he shuffled through some papers. "We're only in the School building itself- not the church."
"Why does a School even need a Church anyways?" I frowned.
"Because...?" Rie frowned- "I dunno, it's just the thing to do?"
"You should have no reason to be concerned," Kazamori said as she finished logging into the school's public server's top most layer of information via her trusty laptop. "This school, despite claiming to be Catholic in dominion, only practices it in name only. According to Legend, the Church seems to have been erected as a Shrine to 'hold back wayward spirits' in the Edo era, and during Christianity's introduction to Japan it was converted and reconstructed to a Catholic Church as a way to provide continued protection from the spirits while 'doubling down' on the protection by supposedly converting the Shrine Maidens to Catholic Nuns."
"Supposedly?" Shinjuurou asked with a raised eyebrow.
"One of the teachers we spoke to is only fifteen years old," Kazamori clarified. "Traditionally, Nuns aren't brought into the service until they are many years older." She paused for a moment, then added, "Mikos on the other hand..."
"Great!" I shuddered, "Mikos. Just great. No wonder this place feels like Bettenou."
"Continuing on," Kazamori continued, "the School "Saint Chronica Academy" as it presently stands was established within the last sixty years, and the Church's resident Nuns were hired on as faculty for the School, with the 'safe harbor' clause allowing club rooms to be placed inside the Church itself."
"Wait. What?" Rie frowned, "That doesn't sound right..."
"Reasons for this aren't listed on this layer of the server that I can find, and our previous sweeps of the school's history from the general Internet failed to bring up any of this information before." Kazamori frowned- "I would need to dig into the School's private server partition to see if there is any record of the why, but that would be unwise given that manually hacking in would be more risky than if I were still an R.A.I."
I looked away from her towards a wall- "Great, so I guess we're still at square one?"
"More like Square Three," Kazamori said. "It's fairly easy to guess that- given the Supernatural cause of Atsuhiko's death- a spirit may have been summoned and slipped through the original barrier keeping them at bay."
"Summoned, huh?" Shinjuurou mused, glancing over at Rie, who flushed slightly at the attention.
"Hey, don't look at me, Yuuki, Shinjuurou!" She remarked, "I'm completely new to this magical mystery stuff, alright?"
"If you're thinking that my powers settled on a student here," I began, "and that Yuuko is-"
"DE-JA-VU!" Came a cry from outside the hallway just then- "I had a dream about this exact thing last night!"
The door opened- and an excited looking boy came through the door, grinning widely.
"Uh, hi," Shinjuurou stared at the boy, "name?"
"Name's Kananaskae!" the boy said with a grin.
"And you're here about Atsuhiko, Hirokazu's death?" Rie asked.
"Nope!" the boy laughed- "I just wanted to see if you guys looked like you did in my dream! And-!" Before he could finish, Inga was already pushing him back out the door.
"Sorry, but unless you've anything important to say about the case, then you're wasting our time!" I kicked the kid out.
"Yeah, I remember you saying that too," The kid said with a content sigh.
"Yeah, nice talkin' with ya," I grumbled as he slipped away.
"I'll call if I have any more dreams!"
"You don't have our number," I sighed, then turned on the small line of kids that were waiting there and yelled: "NEXT!"
"D...Don't laugh," a boy said, "but my name is Hirasaka, Yonaga-"
"Hime?" Kazamori finished, even as I cried out "YONAGA-HIME!" in chant.
"It's all a huge coincidence, I swear to you!" The boy bowed his head, "Just call me Hirasaka, please? I get enough grief from my cousins as it is...!"
"Do you know anything about Atsuhiko, Hirokazu's activities over the last month?" Shinjuurou asked.
"Hirokazu-san was..." Hirasaka began, "troubled. I guess is the word. I was unfortunate enough to have him in my class for every year." He tensed up- "Not to speak ill of the dead, or anything...!"
"That's alright," Rie said with a kind smile, "we get that alot."
"Well, he was the kind of guy that kept to himself after he nearly got expelled," Hirasaka said. "But you knew he was thinking perverted things about the girls around him..."
"Did he ever act on those impulses in class?" Kazamori asked.
"No...although there was this one girl who took an interest in him," Hirasaka said.
"Who?" Shinjuurou asked.
"Hidaka, Hinata, Student Council President," the girl with long, dark brown hair and sparkling, golden-brown eyes said in introduction.
"Did you know Atsuhiko, Hirokazu well?" Shinjuurou asked.
"He and I dated once, in second year," Hinata said, "it didn't last that long. We just weren't compatible as a couple. I tried to remain friends with him, however."
"Did you know about his...ah...late night activities?" Rie asked.
"I knew he had...experience," Hinata smiled slightly with a faint giggle escaping her lips a moment later, "we all have our vices after all."
"Was that the reason you stopped dating?" Shinjuurou asked.
"No, actually," Hinata shook her head. "I'd known about it before a mutual friend of ours set us up on that date in the first place."
"Did you two have sex?" I just threw the question out there without the vaguest hint of tact.
"Er- um-" Hinata's face went red. "What kind of-? No! We most certainly did not!"
"Um," Rie tried to change the subject, "who was this friend of yours who set you up?"
"Caelon, Watanabi, nice to meet 'cha," the grey eyed, black haired girl introduced herself.
"Nice to meet you, Watanabi-chan," Rie said with a smile.
"Anything to help catch the guy who killed Kazu-kun," Watanabi smiled back.
"Hidaka, Hinata-san told us you set her up on a date with Atsuhiko?" Shinjuurou asked.
"Heh," the girl smirked, "yeah. Hinata-chan's that goody two-shoes type. But she works herself to death sometimes. I set her and Kazu-kun up so she could, ah...what's the phrase...?" She thought for a moment, then said in perfect English while that smirk widened into a full blown grin, "Blow off some steam."
"You mean they were having sex?" I once again threw the question out there. Tact? What is this word that you speak of?
"Got it in one," Watanabi laughed. "Don't let it get out though," she then said with a suddenly serious tone, "if her parents find out, she's off the Student Council."
"So you set them up on purpose, knowing Atsuhiko's history?" Rie asked.
"Heck yeah!" Watanabi confessed, "And I knew it a lot better than most people do."
"Why's that?" Shinjuurou asked.
Watanabi leaned forward in her chair and smirked at them- "I was the gal who got him hooked on skirt chasing in the first place."
Kazamori, Shinjuurou, Rie, and I all shared an identical glance as we thought an identical thought: 'Jackpot!'
"One more thing," Rie said, holding out the sketch. "Do you recognize this girl?"
'Yonaga-hime' shook his head no, "No, sorry."
"One last question," Shinjuurou said as he held out the sketch- "Do you recognize this girl?"
"Who is she?" Hinata asked.
"Just a person of interest," Rie said.
"I want to say 'yes', but..." Hinata frowned- "She might be a relative of someone I've seen in class, but otherwise, no, I'm sorry but I don't recognize her."
"Before we continue on with that line of questioning," Kazamori spoke up then, pushing the sketch across the table. "Do you recognize this girl?"
"Yeah, kinda," Watanabi raised an eyebrow. "She sorta looks like the kid who jumped off of the bell tower the other day, but only if that kid were a girl, and a few years older. Maybe she's a cousin or something?"
"That was our assumption," Shinjuurou said, "that she was related to someone here at the school, given the timing of Atsuhiko's death to the suicide attempt."
"Do you know this kid's name?" Rie asked.
"Sorry, not a clue," Watanabi shook her head. "I think he's a second year, but I'm not sure." She frowned- "So you think this gal murdered Kazu-kun?"
"It's looking that way," Shinjuurou said. "She was the last person that we know of to see him alive, at any rate."
"So prime suspect number one, then?" Watanabi chuckled grimly. "Well, she's a bit different from Kazu-kun's type. He usually went after dark haried girls." She slapped a hand against the sketch- "This has her with red hair. Kazu-kun usually avoided them like the plague."
"Any reason why?" Rie asked.
"He just didn't like the color," Watanabi shrugged, "thought it was always dyed."
"So, what exactly made you and Atsuhiko..." I asked, "You know!"
"Well, now that is a long and complicated story," Watanabi smirked. "See, it all goes back to the application exams..."
5:29 P.M.
I found myself walking down the hallways from Rika's Lab to the front doors, instead of to the clubroom, for a change.
I had just checked up on Yukimura to see how she was doing, and seeing that she hadn't been bothered all day, I was now heading home, mulling over the events of the last few days rather absentmindedly when I suddenly ran into the Student Council Treasurer, Yusa, Aoi.
I mean 'ran into' about as literally as possible.
She couldn't see where she was going with that massive stack of boxes in her arms, and I, having been caught up in my thoughts, had failed to see her coming as well.
"Wah!" Yusa yelped in surprise- and the boxes seemed about ready to topple over at that moment had I not reached out to help catch them. "Sorry! Sorry!"
"It's alright," I said, and helped relieve her of half of those massive boxes- which weighed quite alot, actually. "I wasn't paying attention to where I was going."
And then the red haired, red eyed girl before me- in the same class as Sena, but still somehow managing to be a lot shorter than most girls her age- looked up in surprise at her 'rescuer.' "H-Hasegawa-Ani-Do-San!" What a completely odd flustering up of honorfics.
"You need some help with these?" I asked, referring to the boxes.
"Er-um-I-" Yusa's face went red for some reason- "Sure!" She seemed to blurt out before even thinking things through.
Sigh. I really hope things don't get too out of hand with her too.
"So where to?" I asked.
"T-The, ah...storage room!" It was cute how she tried to correct her earlier floundering.
"Right then," I said, and let her lead the way.
We walked in silence for a time- before Yusa spoke up.
"Why are you being so nice!?" She asked so suddenly and with such emotion that I had no clue what she was talking about.
"Hah?"
"You climbed a bell tower to stop someone from jumping! There's nothing delinquent in that at all!"
...Wait, what?
"There weren't even any rumors about you being involved with that guy's death!"
"Oi, Yusa, I don't know what you're going on about, but that's-"
"And now here you are helping me out carrying these boxes!" Yusa continued on- making me seriously regret trying to help her out for a few single moments. "Why did you even ask!? That's nothing a delinquent would do! Why are you acting so nice!? It's completely counter to your character thus far! People might get the wrong idea about you, and start the rumors that you might actually be a nice guy!"
I stopped in my tracks and stared at her.
"Yusa," I said rather flatly, "I think you've got the wrong idea about me."
"But there's no way Sena would fall for someone nice! She's just not into those people!" Yusa continued to rant on, ignorant of my words. "You can't be a nice guy! You bleach your hair! You wear your shirt untucked in! Your club is a fucking Harem!"
"It's actually not-" I said, despite my sudden, horrific realization that what she just said was true.
"WHY AREN'T YOU THE DELINQUENT I DREAM ABOUT?!" Yusa was suddenly yelling- and I had no clue what the hell was wrong with her, or why the hallway temperature suddenly dropped ten degrees. "WHY AREN'T YOU RAVISHING ME HERE IN THE HALLWAY!?" Suddenly- she'd dropped the boxes she was carrying and was lunging at me- "KISS ME! FUCK ME! TEAR MY CLOTHES OFF! BE ROUGH!"
This was completely out of character for what I knew of this girl- and it was only the boxes that she'd once been carrying that prevented something even worse from happening.
Mid lunge towards me, her arms were outstretched in a certain way. I dropped the boxes and Yusa caught them with timing that bordered on the miraculous.
"Bwuh?" She suddenly blinked in confusion at the extra weight.
I'll admit it.
I took the opportunity to run.
I ran so fast that I was slamming the door to Rika's lab shut behind me that there was a double sonic boom three seconds after I started running.
Rika looked up from her desk then- fake glasses having cracks in them as she spun around in confusion- "Kodaka? What the hell!? Did you just teleport in here!?"
I think it was at that moment that I collapsed to the ground and blacked out.