"Alright, you got us up here, Maki. What's up?" Eli said. The squad of ragtag detectives were camped on top of the roof, Maki and Hanayo on one side, Eli and Nozomi on the other.
"I need you to help me with getting to the bottom of this mystery; Rin had something in her bag yesterday afternoon that was making sounds, and we need to find out what it is." Maki explained.
Eli's face became oddly red.
"Something making sound, you say? I think we really shouldn't intrude in her private life."
For a moment, no one said anything.
"Elicchi, I don't think she's old enough for that. Besides, look at this card," In Nozomi's hand was The Virgin. "I drew it right when I heard about this little operation of Maki-chan's to make sure that if we were intruding, I'd leave you, Ayase Eli, pure maiden, in the dark, blissfully innocent, while I, Toujou Nozomi, part-time miko put my virtue on the line-"
"Right, that's enough of that. Back to the topic at hand, Rin had something in her purse making sounds yesterday and we're trying to find what it is, any suggestions on how to proceed?" Maki said as she shut down Nozomi's dramatics.
"I think that we should bribe her with food!" Hanayo exclaimed, rice flying from her mouth due to the rice ball she was eating as a mobile breakfast. "We could cook her ramen and not give her chopsticks until she tells us what's in the purse!"
"Harasho!" "Absolutely not!" Eli and Maki yelled at the same time.
"No one here can outrun Rin, right? Only Eli even has a chance. If we keep her chopsticks, she'll just hunt us down and take them. That's not going to work." Maki explained.
"But Maki, what if we hide them?" Hanayo suggested after a moment of thought.
"I suppose we could try. When? The quicker we get to the bottom of this, the better."
"We could always just steal her chopsticks from her bento now, so she won't have anything to eat with at lunch today." Nozomi said nonchalantly.
The remaining members of the detective squad turned to look at Nozomi with varying levels of fear, which gradually turned into awe.
"I suppose we could…" Eli muttered.
"Then it's decided. As Hanayo and I have class with Rin, one of us will distract her and the other will attempt to sneak her chopsticks away. The three of us usually eat lunch at the bench in the courtyard, so go there to carry out phase two, everybody. Any questions? No? Dismissed." Maki ordered.
"Hey, Maki-chan, you're not the student council president just yet, you know?" Nozomi said with a teasing tone.
"Ehh? Nani sore? Imi wakannai! I'm not copying the sergeant from Full Metal Jacket or anything. I totally didn't just watch that last night to learn how to lead a squad." Maki defended. "Anyways, classes are about to start, let's get going."
"Hey, Kayo-chin, you've been looking at my lunch a lot today, are you hungry?" The first-year members of the crack investigative crew had gotten to class in good time without casting any suspicion on themselves, but Hanayo's stakeout of Rin's bento had not been so smooth.
"Oh no, of course not. What makes you think that, Rin-chan?" Hanayo said as she continued trying to find a way to separate Rin's lunch from her eating utensils. Or vice versa; she hadn't decided yet.
"You've been looking at it ever since you sat down. It's alright, you can have some if you want, nya." With Rin handing her the chopsticks and the food at the same time, Hanayo made up her mind; even if the bento didn't contain rice, food was food, and it'd be a shame to waste it.
So, as casually as possible, she opened the window and threw the chopsticks out.
At that moment, the teacher walked into the room, ready to begin a bright new day. At the sight of the usually quiet and reserved Hanayo wielding a fierce expression while ejecting something from the classroom, she promptly walked back out the door, but not before muttering, "If I'm sleeping, somebody please wake me up. Koizumi-san would never do such a thing in reality, right?"
The teacher's incredulity caused all eyes to be on Hanayo and Rin, as the guilty party slowly closed the window.
"That was pretty slick, Hanayo. If I didn't know any better, I would have sworn absolutely nothing happened just now." Maki snarked.
"Hey, Kayo-chin, why did you throw my chopsticks out the window? I kinda needed those, nya. This lunch isn't worth much if I can't eat it." Rin said.
Hanayo finished closing the window and sat down to start thinking. Rin was right, that lunch was pretty inedible now. She realized, also, that she may have gone a bit overboard, but the plan was still on track. She'd just have to find some way to allow Rin to be able to eat after she spilled the intel. She could probably just give Rin her own chopsticks, seeing as how all she'd packed was rice balls which she could eat with her hands. Satisfied with the current status of the mission, she tuned back into the class.
And was met with all the stares of her classmates as well as that of her recently-returned teacher.
"Koizumi-san, would you care to explain to the class exactly what just happened?" said teacher asked.
"Uhm, I saw, a, uh, centipede, on the chopsticks, so I threw them out the window. For Rin-chan's safety. Absolutely. That's exactly what happened." Hanayo tried to explain.
"So what punishment did Hanayo-chan get, exactly?" Nozomi asked.
"She's on hallway duty. Not just the first year hallways either. She's not going home tonight until every board, tile, and plank on every floor in the entire building is sparkling clean." Maki replied.
"What happened with Rin's food situation?" Eli asked.
"Hanayo ended up giving her chopsticks to Rin. Along with the rest of her lunch. She just kinda threw it all on Rin's desk and ran away. Probably to be embarrassed in solitude." Maki answered.
The three intrepids still standing had stayed behind after practicing with µ's to discuss their next step in the club room. A discussion that had shifted to the fact that Hanayo hadn't been there. The third-years had thought it to be a mundane reason, but never in their imaginations could they have thought Hanayo to be capable of messing up so badly.
"Well then, if there's nothing more we can do today, I'd suggest we pack it up and try to come up with something tomorrow. The plan to ransom Rin's food for knowledge wasn't a bad idea, but the execution could have used some work, from what I gather. Let's use a night's sleep to muse over what we could do." Eli said, finishing the meeting.
"Eli, if you hadn't said to get some sleep, I would have left anyways from how bad that pun was." Maki said over her shoulder as she walked out.
A/N: So I've realized, over the course of this chapter, that I absolutely can't keep up a 400 word/day pace. I'm going to try 200 for now. Other reason this chapter's so late is that I skipped 4 days. (only 1 of them were skipped without reason though!) I'm pretty sure the 3rd chapter's going to come a bit quicker, but we'll see what happens.