Second's chapter here and I do hope that you enjoy this one as well.
Italic: Inner thoughts.
Big sisters are great at certain times and horrible at others. For some, sisters could give you love, caring, affection and all those stuffs. Some sisters however….
This tension is too much. Too unbearable. Too…
Awkward…
I sometimes wondered how people in this world were able to sit in a room with the other party in total silence and not get any awkward moments.
Whatever.
I glanced over across the table and saw Chitanda, still reading a book with that smile plastered on her face. I looked back down to my own back but couldn't concentrate on the words. I was about to give out to the tension but Chitanda surprisingly broke down first.
"Oreki-san!" She stood up, almost shouting.
"What?"
"It's barren!"
"Yeah, the room hasn't been used in a while so it is bare and dusty." Why did I come up with a pun, I'll never know.
"No that's not what I me-." She paused for a moment, letting the words flow through her. "That was a pun, wasn't it?!"
This girl really has a troublesome habit of leaning into other people's face.
"I know." I subconsciously moved my seat backward. "Lame, isn't it?" I nervously tried to laugh through my current predicament.
Luckily, she pulled her face back, much to my comfort and sat down.
"No, I did not mean it like that. It's just…" She put one finger on her chin. "Our expedition group hasn't actually gone on an actual expedition yet."
'Yet'
That word somehow gave chills to me as I dreaded the thoughts of actually going out into the mountain, caverns or ruins to explore like my sis did.
"We don't actually have to go on an expedition you know?" I tried to come up with a better alternative to expedition.
I gulped as I prepared myself to utter the words that I never thought that I would.
"We could just… solve some mysteries instead..hehe." I rubbed my head nervously before looking over to Chitanda.
She appeared shocked for a moment before reverting back to her usual face.
They just like to tease you, annoy you and use you like a tool. But my sis is not like that.
"That reminded me, Oreki-san. Why did you decide to join to Classics Expedition group?"
I saw no trouble telling her what got me into joining so I did. "My sis was actually part of this circle a long time ago. She just wants me to keep it from discontinuing."
"Well, what about you?" I asked nonchalantly. Chitanda looked over to window, to my surprise as I expected her to tell me her story enthusiastically.
"That is… well, I joined for personal reasons." She looked over to me apologetically, "Sorry that I can't tell you, Oreki-san."
"It's okay." If she doesn't want to tell me, then who am I to pry into her life? Just as I finished my thoughts, the door burst open; revealing my ever energetic friend, Fukube Satoshi.
"Satoshi…" I mumbled under my breath. The two didn't notice however, as they engaged in their own conversation.
"Hey there Chitanda-san. I got my application form!" He pulled it out and excitedly showed it to her. Chitanda appeared pleased as she hurriedly grabbed on to the paper, letting out a courteous smile.
"This is perfect, Fukube-san." She bowed as if it's a reaction when thanking someone. I dismissed it and focused on my book instead.
A few moments later and I felt like a pair of eyes staring at me. No, two pairs.
I looked up at saw Chitanda and Satoshi looking curiously at me. They appeared excited, as they always are.
"What?"
"Oreki-san!" For once, Chitanda didn't get into my face. "Fukube-san just told me an interesting story earlier. Do you want to hear it?"
I raised my eyebrows in suspicion before replying. "No, not really."
"Fukube-san, would you mind telling Oreki-san?" She shouted to Satoshi, oblivious to my former answer. The latter walked over to my desk briskly, placing his hands directly in front of my book.
Luckily, he didn't get into my face like Chitanda would.
"Well, Houtarou. Seeing as how you're interested and all, prepare your body and mind for this tale I'm about to tell you-."
"Just get it over with." I prematurely ended his speech.
"Pfff, you're no fun." He pouted for a moment before continuing, a single finger in the air; wagging around.
"So apparently… there is this B-rank quest poster on the bulletin board." I raised my eyebrow and Satoshi immediately understood my confusion.
"You know the one with the dragon on it?" I dug my mind to search out any quest posters with such a design on it.
Ah, that one.
"You mean the one where the client asked the guild to retrieve treasures supposedly lost in a dragon's den?"
"Yup, that one." He put down his finger, "You're ready for the shocking part?"
Even with the bored look on my face, even I couldn't deny that I was a tad…curious.
"So… after two days of putting up the poster, a couple of people took up the quest only to return the poster one day later."
"And that should be interesting…how?"
Chitanda decided to pique in on our discussion. "Even if it's a B-rank quest, they should've had it done by at least 2 or 3 days. Not one."
"Not only that." Satoshi added "The quest was returned incomplete."
I sighed, thinking up of the simplest answer that I could. "Maybe the quest was just too hard?"
"That's impossible, Oreki-san. The people who took up the quest were quite experienced in exploring, so it doesn't make sense that they wouldn't be able complete a simple B-rank quest."
"Maybe the rewards for the quest were underwhelming compared to their expectation?" I retorted.
"That's impossible, Houtarou. Even the basic explorers took their time to read what the mission requires and their rewards." He waved off my answers.
Before I could even answer, Chitanda asked timidly "Um, Fukube-san. Do you think that I could see the actual poster? I haven't been to the bulletin board all that often, hehe."
"Sure thing. I'm sure it's still there." Fukube quickly ran towards the door, signaling us to do the same. Chitanda followed suit just as quickly. I was left alone, to my relief.
However as I tried to immerse myself in my book again, the petite girl quickly returned and pulled my arm, much to my dismay.
I forced myself to follow along, if I don't want my arm to be dislocated like last time.
My sis isn't like a girl, in a general sense. She likes to get dirty, explore ruins, chasms or caves. She also likes to put her little brother in uncomfortable situation like making him join a circle.
Satoshi waited for us patiently in the hallway and when he saw us, he immediately bolted towards his destination, prompting Chitanda to do the same.
And also me.
Our destination was surprisingly long even though it was just the bulletin board…or maybe, I was just out of shape?
Maybe, it's both.
But instead of walking to the bulletin board like we should've done, Satoshi led us to the guild administration.
I trudged behind both Satoshi and Chitanda to the front desk until a menacing voice caught my attention.
"Oreki."
"Ibara…" I tried to make my voice as ominous as her but failed. "What are you doing here? I thought this was a place for the guild administrators, not a girl with short fuse."
The only reaction I evoked out of her was a simple cross of her arm and a smug look on her face.
"Say what you want, Oreki." She pointed towards a small badge on her chest, barely visible. "But I've been promoted to handle to frontlines."
Stop making this sound like a battlefield.
Before I would retort, Satoshi grabbed my shoulder and talked to Ibara instead. It was better this way. Even if I lived near Ibara longer, Satoshi was probably the only one that can make her open herself up.
"Sorry about his rude behavior, Ibara but we would like to see that B-rank fetch quest poster for a bit."
Ibara stared at Satoshi incredulously before bending down to reach for it in the archives. "Now you're doing it too? The quest was already finished yet the leader said to keep it in the archives where it was easy to reach."
She handed the poster over to Satoshi who started to inspect it. Chitanda, being the ever curious girl she was, peeked over Satoshi's shoulder.
I tried to look at some other quest posters as I was running short on money. Glancing over each quest as quickly as I could, I found one that might suit me. But before I could go grab it, something grab me first.
Rather, someone…
"Oreki-san, would you mind taking a look at this." She asked, her eyes already a shining shade of violet.
Of course, I mind. But she would just keep on pestering me until I agree to her antics so I settled for a grumble instead.
She took this as an agreement and gently pulled me towards Satoshi, who appeared very concentrated at the poster.
As I arrived, Satoshi handed me the poster so that I could inspect it. Satoshi's description was on point though it was a crude drawing of a dragon, lying in a cave. The description was rather simple.
-A rather important treasure was stolen.
-It currently resides in the Dragon Den.
-Please get it back.
It was a simple fetch quest as the Dragon Den had no dragons residing in it this season. As I remember correctly, this quest was among the one added 2 weeks ago or so. The season that allowed the dragons to migrate up north was 5 weeks ago, so that ruled out the possibility that a dragon stopped the explorer from reaching the treasures.
I handed it back to Satoshi and decided to ask Ibara on this matter. Well, at least try to.
"Ibara." I said as softly as I could, earning a glare from her. I felt like a prey that was being stalked. I gulped and continued.
"Could I see the list of those who took up this quest, only to return it?"
She continued to glare at me but eventually sighed and reached under her desk. At this time, Satoshi came closer to me.
"You got something." He whispered to me, making me feel slightly uncomfortable. I looked over to Chitanda who was still standing there, hands clasped together behind her back.
"Maybe." I whispered back, not wanting Chitanda to hear. Ibara dug out the quest book and flipped over to the page where the quest was recorded.
"Here you go." She pushed to heavy book to me. "Don't bother me unless you find a breakthrough. I need to archive today's quests too."
Fetching the book, which was quite heavy, I limped to a nearby table while Satoshi called Chitanda.
We laid out the book on the table and looked over the record. 4 people took up the quest while three returned it empty handed.
Seeing as the Classics circle finally gathered up, I pointed my finger over the names while my eyes were focused on Satoshi.
"Satoshi, check the names here." He stared at the name before replying with a simple thumb up. He took out his slightly smaller book and a runic pen, and began scribbling down.
Chitanda appeared quite confused at the action and asked me. "What is Fukube-san doing?"
Well, she has every rights to be confused.
"Satoshi prefer non-violent way to deal with his enemies so instead of him being directly in the fight, he uses his runes."
Chitanda nodded with every word.
"Though, I guess you could say that book is his database." I looked back at Satoshi, who was smiling as he kept on writing. "He is quite useful in information hunting."
"Done!" Satoshi slammed his hand over the book. I was quite startled but Chitanda just looked like a child who just witnessed a magic act.
"So, what's the info on them?" I asked just as quickly, to avoid any attention from the onlookers that heard his slamming.
"The first one, Sawakiguchi Misaki, is the head of the publicity department. Her job is to ensure that the public hear about our guild and such." He handed me the runic paper that he used which was inscribed with more detailed information.
"The second one,Kouchi Ayako, is part of a circle that is dedicated to finding treasures that are specifically paintings." Another paper that is inscribed was handed to me.
"Ah, you're researching about Kouchi-san?" came a voice that I did not want to hear. "Maybe I can help."
"Wait a minute, aren't you busy archiving today's quests?" I wanted to get rid of her as soon as possible. This two beside me are already draining my energy dry.
"Today's quests were little." She ignored me afterward and went to sit next to Fukube. "Anyway, back on the topic of Kouchi-san. She's also the owner of a clothing brand in town, if that can help you in anyway."
Satoshi appeared excited by this new information as he quickly noted it down on another piece of paper. As Satoshi was writing down, Chitanda leaned closer to me.
"Um, Oreki-san. What is the relationship between those two?" Chitanda asked, pointing softly at the two in front of her.
I decided that this was the best time for her to get acquainted with our temporary helper so I answered her.
"Satoshi and Ibara have this back-and-forth relationship, so to speak." I made sure Chitanda was listening before continuing, "For simplicity sake, Ibara has a crush and Satoshi but he hasn't respond to her yet."
I made sure that the last part was quiet as to avoid any backlashs from Ibara which, more often than not, were quite painful.
My thoughts were interrupted as Satoshi cleared his throat, done with scribbling down his new information.
"Alright, the third one is Irisu Fuyumi who is currently the crush of all the males in this guild building by the way."
My face was stoic to his joke while Ibara took it a bit more personally and elbowed him gently to his side.
"Back to the topic, she is known as The Empress or the Ice witch as she specializes in ice magic." He put his finger on his chin. "It is said that she is part of Sawakiguchi-san's circle as well even though most of her expedition are solo."
"As for the fourth one-."
"Stop right there, Satoshi. Three is enough." I said, looking at the three papers with all their information.
"If you say so, Houtarou." He closed his book and leaned slightly closer to me. In fact, all three people that was currently occupying the table did.
"What?"
"Well, you said you only need three, Oreki-san. Why is that?" Chitanda asked.
"Because the fourth one completed the quest so there's no way that the last one is related to them plus…" I showed them the three cards.
"These threes are A level explorers or higher so there's no way that they can't beat a simple B-rank quest."
This was taking too long. Useless questions didn't need to be answered but that's not a choice around Chitanda.
"Satoshi, hand me the poster." Satoshi did as he was told and gave me the poster. I took a closer look at it though there was nothing out of place from a normal poster.
I was considering giving it back until Chitanda peered from over my shoulder.
"What is it? You found something?"
"Well it's really small but…" She pointed to a spot near the dragon's tail. "This spot appears to contain a bit of light magic."
Since when did humans have built in light magic sensor?
However I decided to hold in my question in and instead asked on her she could sense it.
"Even if it's the case, how do you know?" I appeared skeptic towards this girl and her weird powers.
"Um, I told you that I have the ability to control space, right?" I nodded while Satoshi did the same though Ibara appeared a bit surprised.
"Well I can sense the magic aura in a certain area around me. So I can easily discern any magic that is not familiar to me."
"If you can do that then why didn't you tell me earlier?" I raised my eyebrow. The others noticed this and began putting their attention on Chitanda.
"Well…I was going to tell you but…" She looked down at her hands, just like a child who has been caught stealing cookies.
"I thought that Oreki-san has already solved it."
Stop treating me like a genius.
"Alright." I sighed. "Satoshi, does this poster contain any light magic?"
Satoshi took the poster and began using his runes magic on it. A couple of seconds later and he was done.
"It's like Chitanda-san said. It's really faint but it is still there."
I leaned back into my seat, digesting the new information down. The reason might not need to be anything logical, just as long as it was true.
"What do we usually use light magic for anyway?" I expected Satoshi to answer but Ibara quickly replied.
"For lightings, holographic writing, taking photograph. That's all the stuffs that I could think of right now."
This might be simpler than I thought.
I tucked on a piece of loose hair and twirled it around for a while. Three girls associated for being elites of the guild, light magic and a poster.
I finally stopped twirling my hair and found that all eyes were on me.
"What now?"
Chitanda was the first to speak up. "Well, we wouldn't want to interrupt your thoughts so we decided to wait until you finished."
She finished off with a smile, to which I grimaced at.
"Fine." I laid out the poster on the table. "Chitanda, tell me what you think of our guild's current logo."
Chitanda looked up for a moment before replying. "Well, while it is nice that it represents our town, the mountains on the logo are a bit…boring."
"Good. Now Ibara, would fitting something near the mountain be more attractive?"
Ibara stared at me as if testing me to question her but eventually stopped and answered my question.
"Well of course. Who would want to join a guild that is only centered around mountains?"
"Just as I thought." I turned to Satoshi, who appeared quite excited as if he was anticipating my question.
"Satoshi, if you have to pick one girl out of the three for being attractive and independent, who would It be?"
"Without a doubt, it is Irisu Fuyumi. Most of her expeditions are solo and her looks are the things that made her the crush of all the boys here." Ibara looked quite ticked and elbowed Satoshi again.
"What was that for?!" shouted Satoshi.
"Sorry. My arm jerked." She looked away with a loud 'Hmph!".
"That last part was unnecessary but thanks." I propped my head on my palm on the table. "Ibara, was there any meeting recently?"
She raised an eyebrow before answering "We had a meeting on how we can attract more people to the guild."
"Did they talk about some advertisements?"
"Of course. That's one of the big topics." She looked suspiciously at me. "What are you getting at here?"
"Not much but Mayaka. Can you take us to the publicity department?"
"Why?"
I sighed. The world would be a lot more efficient if people stopped questioning obvious things.
"Just do it. I'll explain later."
Mayaka reluctantly nodded and walked towards the publicity department. I trailed behind her for a while before Satoshi wrapped his arm around my shoulder.
"So you're thinking what I'm thinking?" He said with a smile. A smile that was too contagious.
"Maybe. Maybe not." I smiled as well.
It wasn't long before we arrived at the department, which was quite noiseless compared to its assumed responsibility.
Two knocks and Sawakiguchi-san came out of the door.
"Yo, Ibara! What do you need?" She greeted cheerfully, doing a mock-salute in the process.
"My friend here." I didn't like the way she stressed the word 'Friend'. "Wanted to see something."
Seeing as that is my cue, I stepped up and asked her personally.
"Excuse me, Sawakiguchi-san but I am looking for the new guild's logo and advertisement poster; if you don't mind."
She smiled at my request and nodded before going into the room. We waited a bit before she came out with two pictures. One of the guild's new logo, which was a dragon wrapping itself around a mountain while the other is a picture of Irisu holding the poster, as if posing for the camera.
I received both of them and inspected them for a bit before handing one to Chitanda and the other to Satoshi, who was closer to Ibara.
The trio looked at me as if I was some sort of freak.
"You're weird, Oreki." Ibara said without any hesitation.
"I'm the most ordinary out of us all." I retorted before feeling a slight tug on my sleeve.
"Oreki-san...how did you figure this out?" Chitanda asked me, her eyes returning to their shining violet form.
Seeing as I had no way out, I decided to explain.
"The quest itself was simple and easy. Easy enough that those three could've completed it but they had something else in mind." I paused to lean on a nearby wall.
"Honestly, if I hadn't known that there are light magic on the poster; we wouldn't have solve this case." I looked around before continuing. "But the moment that Ibara mentioned a meeting about how to attract more people to the guild, it basically confirms my theory."
"Those three were borrowing the poster so that they could have materials to work with for the new logo and advertisments. Sawakiguchi-san was the one who came up with the idea, Kouchi-san handled the costumes and poses needed since she is the owner of a clothing brand while Irisu is the model." I finished my theory.
"Good theory, Houtarou but," Satoshi grinned, as if challenging me. "Why couldn't they just keep the poster until they finished it?"
"Because they were worried that new members can't find easy jobs to do. Those jobs at the bulletin board are A+ rankings."
Satoshi seemed satisfied at my explanation and so is Chitanda.
"I knew it; you are weird, Oreki." Ibara said with a weird tone in her voice.
"Well, Oreki. I had fun today but with the sun setting and all, I gotta go home!" Satoshi waved goodbye as I did the same. Ibara said farewell to Chitanda before returning to her administration duties.
I was going to do the same but Chitanda stopped me.
"Um, Chitanda, I think we should go home now. It's getting dark." I rubbed my neck.
"Oreki-san. I think it's wonderful on how you solve mysteries like these, that's why…" She clasped her hands together as if begging. "Come to the Café Garden tomorrow at 8 am!"
Café Garden, a regular spot that even I like to go to. The calm atmosphere plus the quietness there really sooths you.
"I can but why?"
"Please, just come!" And with that, she was gone. She appeared quite hasty as I watched her from behind.
Well; if I have to do it, I'll make it quick.
Location: Café Garden
She was late. Uncourteously late.
I checked my watch once more. Already 10 minutes have passed since our meeting time and I've already finished one cup of coffee.
As I began ordering for another one, the door swung opened and from it; Chitanda. She was wearing a rather loose blouse with her hair tied up in a ponytail.
"Pardon my tardiness, Oreki-san." She bowed a bit before taking a seat right in front of me.
"Don't worry about it." I decided to put my arms on the table. "Let get straight to the point. Why did you call me here?"
Chitanda appeared surprised at the question before calming herself down. What is this? A manga confession?
I was unnerved by her silence so I blurted out my thoughts. "What is this? A confession?"
"You could say…it's confession of sorts."
I gulped and called out to the waiter for another cup of coffee.
"Actually Oreki-san!" She stood up, pressing her hands on the table. I winced at all the noise she was making.
"I have a request!"
Sis, why did I leave my life decisions in your hands?
Minor note: Do remember that this will be a fantasy fanfiction and thus, some characters might be OOC. Also, I'm basing most of the events on the original Hyouka(With some little twists)