Chapter 41 - The Leg-work


"Byakko, this is not the time to be having a nervous breakdown!" Alice whispered harshly.

The lilac-haired giant was incessantly pulling at the stiff collar of his dress shirt despite her rapid reminders not to. This time his eyes weren't the usual hollowness, but was filled with feverish anxiety as his long sweaty fingers tugged the crisp white fabric from his prominent Adam's apple like it was biting him. This morning, Alice had finally managed to wrangle him into a suit with the help of Ayame-san and Namikaze-san of course. One giant against three ornery girls on a mission? Ha! He didn't stand a chance. He groaned again. Low, guttural and full of annoyance. His forehead was starting to look like a waterfall as his chest heaved up and down from his imaginary sweltering heat.

'Face it. It could be worse'

Alice had to admit that he cleaned up really well. He looked delicious in a casual suit. Once upon a time she would have said that loud and proud, but with the slightly tentative situation of theirs, she kept it to herself. They settled for casual garments only because he out-rightly refused to wear the jacket that came with it. Instead he was in black dress pants, black shoes, and a crisp white dress shirt. His hair was tied up in a low-pony tail with his fringe slicked back with a ridiculous amount of hair gel. Just thinking about him and his new clothes sent her cheeks simmering as Alice grazed her scrutinising ruby-red eyes across the dip of his clavicle disappearing into his dress-shirt. The buttons barely held the expanse of the lean and taut muscles of his chest, flexing as Byakko hyperventilated in barely concealed panic. My… it was getting hard to swallow.

Alice tried to refocus.

'For goodness sakes! How many times do I have to remind him that rolling his sleeves up to his elbows will ruin the fabric!'

Alice huffed under her breath as Byakko tried to tug it higher. She was mentally criticising Byakko in any way she could to be rid of this gut-churning feeling that sent delightful butterflies through her system, but restrained herself from doing anything about it. She already tried to roll them down three times, but he always ended up rolling them back up while he sent her a scathing, but harmless glare with those heated hazel orbs. Her fingers itched by her side so she clenched them around her expensive handbag. Even in his nervous-breakdown, he tried to retain some semblance of his own control, and so she gave up and let him have it in case he cracked from her nagging. Alice unwound her fingers, realising that the sweat from her palms might ruin the leather and instead wrung her hands behind her back as she gave his physique one last critical appraisal. She gently bit her lip, resisting a sigh. Even though he looked really good right now, he was treading a very thin line between looking too casual, and formal enough for a meeting with Ojii-sama.

The other reason they were here.

Meet the grandfather.

She might be a bit of an opportunist at times, but Isshiki-senpai was more so. When he heard that she and Byakko were going to try to make it work again, he spared them no delay and made an enthusiastic suggestion. Now that Fader has returned to Danmark and is out of the way, how about making the relationship official behind his back by introducing the Byakko to Ojii-sama and win his support! But here's the bonus: Participate in a side-quest and break into your dead aunt's bedroom on the way to your final destination, and leave a spy drone there to do what it does best. Then pick it up on the way out. Killing two birds with one stone! He didn't say it exactly like that, but he might as well have.

He even wanted to sweeten the deal by saying he could get Ayame Kanda involved.

The sigh slipped out anyway. She warned Byakko about keeping the proper dress code in the presence of a Japanese noble, but it didn't look like it registered in that panic-filled mind. He was that restless and that fearful. It wasn't as if she would be seeing him in a casual suit again any time soon so she might as well enjoy the view while she could. More positives out of a volatile situation. After all, they were back together again… sort of… and hot boyfriends were there to be ogled at to the heart's content.

"What if I mess up"

Byakko's deep voice was thick and hoarse with worry. Alice took the gift bag from him before he accidentally flung it over the boardwalk railing. One of the things inside the beautifully decorated bag was Byakko's initial-meeting-gift for Ojii-sama. She grabbed his free hand and squeezed it tightly.

"You won't. All you have to do is pick the lock, deposit the drone, let Ayame-san do her thing for an hour, and we pick it up on the way out"

"I don't mean that. I mean… what if your grandfather doesn't like me?"

Alice's eyes softened as she craned her neck to look up at her boyfriend. The unsure lilt at the end of his sentence made him endearingly vulnerable. In all honesty, she was more scared of meeting his parents and them hating her, after everything she'd done to him. For somebody so tall and intimidating to stand beside, he looked like he was so worried to the point of fainting. It was worse than that time he had stage fright at the Tootsuki Summer Solstice Festival. That was an off-limits topic now. Alice knew Byakko's demeanour was made of steel when he needed it to be. Nothing phased him. Not the delinquents littering around Karakura Town who targeted him, not the toughest soccer opponents Japan threw his way and certainly not when having a stare-down with Ryou-kun.

Nothing.

Except playing guitar in front of a live audience and the prospect of meeting Ojii-sama.

He had his vices.

Byakko's hazel eyes darted from side to side, clearly uncomfortable with being surround by wealth and walking on floorboards that cost more than his family home mortgage. He had every right to be freaked out, any boyfriend would. But in Byakko's case, he had every right to freak out even more. Alice had nothing but faith in him and that Ojii-sama would like him. Ojii-sama was a man of reason and fairness, never letting blind prejudice to dictate him. He was also a man who never forgot his roots. All Byakko needed to do was to be true to himself and hopefully Ojii-sama will see what a great guy Byakko was!

For a second there, she felt guilty.

'Byakko's always putting up with my crap… even after what I did to him. He is… too good for me'

The flicker of fear and nerves swimming in his eyes made Alice grab his shoulders and pull him down to a close-quarters kiss. She made sure it was a full and earnest one to show how much he really meant to her. Not Isshiki-senpai's bloody plan, but him meeting the most important member of her family and showing him how they could make this work. Once they parted, Byakko's breath ghosted over her lips and they quivered ever so slightly. He still bent over her smaller frame, not yet straightening up. His eyes were closed and he continued to inhale and exhale through his mouth as if he hadn't been kissed in forever. There was a noticeable improvement as his breathing calmed. Alice ran her hands over the front of this shirt, up and down as she tried to smooth the imaginary creases. The musky scent of pine and grass was masked by the thin spray of citrusy cologne she bought for him.

"You will be fine. We'll be fine"

Byakko finally re-erected his back and his eyes glazed over with his familiar determination just before a tough soccer game, but still a hint of anxiety lurked beneath it. Alice returned her infamous smile, knowing that it will further ease Byakko, or so she hoped. Alice led him down the corridor, their shoes echoing off the aging pine as they passed by sliding doors after sliding doors. The Danish Nakiri breathed out a shuddering breath. She stopped in front of a particular set and then her chest suddenly felt extremely heavy.

This was it. This was the room.

Only it wasn't the customary sliding door. It was a fusuma disguised as a wall.

There were no handles or locks in sight.

Nobody outside the inner circles of the family would even know such a thing existed. So she justified that as the reason why she was jealous that Isshiki-senpai somehow came by this information from her grief-stricken Ojii-sama many weeks ago. Like, how could he have obtained that info?! Both teens examined it. It was now a large mural, painted in moss green, plum-blossom blushes, and earthen brown hues beloved by the Japanese artistic community. Normally these days, they were printed on the thick and opaque washi paper that constituted the Japanese fusuma, otherwise known as the room-dividers. But of course, the Nakiri Family weren't ones to always transgress the traditional. It had to be hand-painted in the good old-fashioned way. The delicate brush strokes brought to life one of the oldest plum trees Alice had ever seen. It immersed its convoluted branches over the width of three-sets of fusuma. She could just reach out and touch the twisted branches and actually feel the texture of the rough and hardened bark. It was so detailed. Japanese style paintings were one of the oldest and most highly refined. She reckoned that only a few noble families still invested in mid-Heian period fusuma art, with the Nakiri family being one of them.

She vaguely felt Byakko slip his hand from hers. The sounds of his knees cracking as he crouched down in front of the middle fusuma panel alerted her that he was already getting to work. It was like he completely transformed and she had no idea who that nervous wreck was before. That was the thing about Kuchiyose Byakko. Once he found his footing, he was focused. She stepped aside and watched as his sharp eyes trained over a particular part on the mural, completely ignoring the elegant and beautiful art. He lifted his long arm and caressed the smooth lacquered edge of the middle part of the fusuma until he came to a stop. He turned towards Alice and held out his hand patiently.

"Uh… Oh! Right…"

The Danish Nakiri fumbled with her hand bag and pulled out a roll of fabric and quickly handed it to Byakko. It was his lock-picking kit which he gave to her for safe keeping. That thing was was surprisingly light! He couldn't tuck it into his belt at the back like he usually did because he refused the bloody jacket! While Byakko was unfurling it and selecting whatever tools he needed, Alice glanced at her watch. It would be fifteen minutes until the next change-over of maids. She wasn't sure if that was enough time. Alice turned back to see what Byakko was doing and it was her turn to freak out.

He was cutting open the fusuma!

"W-What are you doing?!" she whispered loudly.

"The lock is behind the fusuma, where the original shoji is"

Alice didn't even know that. There was no way Isshiki-senpai would know that either. He sure had an eye for these things. She wanted to beat her fists on his back for no apparent reason. She wondered how many other doors did Byakko lock-picked while they were… broken up… He calmly and expertly sliced the artwork with a switch-blade to lift off a piece of square opaque paper. Her breath caught in her chest as she begged that he didn't tear anything else. It was such a shame that such piece of artistic craftsmanship was being ruined in this way. But since everybody usually walked by the section of the traditional manor without so much as glancing in the direction of Lady's Nadeshiko's old room, they might just overlook a few slight cuts to the artwork. But it was for a greater cause! Luckily it was just beige and wasn't part of the plum tree so at least that was in their favour. Sure enough, once he removed the thick piece of paper, there was the round metal pull of the fusuma.

So that's how it wasn't bulging from the washi! It was pressed further in until it was flush. Byakko eased his fingers into the grooves and cautiously tugged it.

Alice held her breath even more as it cracked back with a crusty-sounding release.

He tugged it again with a little more force.

The whole fusuma with the plum-tree began to shift with an audible groan and a slight rattle. It was almost painful to watch the fusuma shifting aside with little bits of dust and particles snowing down from the top railing. The middle of the mural swallowed itself in the middle as half the plum tree trunk slid behind the other. It was never meant to be opened, but for some reason the builders added the wooden top and bottom rails anyway and she was glad for it. Her boyfriend's nostrils flared as he braced himself and edged it further against heavier resistance until he could see some of the original shoji door behind the plum-tree disguised fusuma. Lady Nadeshiko's original shoji door. The rice paper was still fairy white. Alice finally released her breath. Well that was one barrier down. The wooden pull of the shoji door had an installed lock on it.

How modern for sixteen years ago.

Byakko sidled closer and inspected it before pulling out a set of long needles with and without hooked ends. He proceeded to gently insert it in and did what he did best besides soccer and playing the acoustic.

Lock picking.

It was highly unusual for shoji doors to have locks. She didn't know if this was Ojii-sama's doing or if it was Lady Nadeshiko's. Whatever the case, they had to get passed it.

"Quickly Byakko, ten more minutes until the maid change over" whispered Alice.

"Would you rather me punch through the paper?"

Alice gaped at him. She pursed her lips and her cheeks puffed up and turned red.

Byakko ignored her and after a few carefully placed jostles and clicks, there was a louder click and he twisted his wrist quickly. Byakko exhaled through his nose and retracted his tools, placing them back into their cloth bag. Alice patted down her cream-coloured dress and bent closer. There was this morbid curiosity in seeing what Lady Nadeshiko's room looked like at the moment of her ghastly demise. Byakko managed to slide the now unlocked shoji open a bit more easily.

"It smells weird" commented Alice.

"Smells like death"

Well, Byakko wasn't wrong there. But he didn't need to say it in such a nonchalant way. It made the whole thing creepier. The darkness within brought a musty, stuffy and stale smell, tainted with an old scent of a women's perfume from a different time. It air tasted like dust and emptiness. She didn't like it one bit. There was a slight disturbance in the space around them, as if the room was liberated from a suffocating hold. It gasped for as much breath as it could from being locked away for sixteen years. Alice's hand flew up to her nose as she craned her neck inside, just to catch a sight of any of the contents of the room. It was so dark! The fusuma were all opaque. She couldn't see much except maybe an outline of a chest of drawers and a raised futon. She had no time to explore, they had work to do.

Byakko teased the gift bag from Alice's hand, reached inside and took out a small robotic creature.

Ayame-san's remote controlled mini-stealth drone with a few modifications.

It used to be police issued but was decommissioned, and Ayame-san the little nerdy delight was able to patch it up back to working order. It didn't take a genius to see that she installed bits and pieces from a Swiss-army knife to it to help collect and forage for evidence. Her boyfriend pressed a button at the bottom of the drone and Alice watched the slow flashing of the red light pulse at the front where the camera lens were before it turned green. There was barely any sound coming from the little machine as it was slowly brought to life. It had a main body, three feet, and two individual horizontal propellers to get it off the ground, where its angle could be adjusted to turn and such while hovering in the air. There was also a little antenna on top for maintaining signals as Ayame-san and the other could control it from a long distance.

Alice crouched down beside Byakko, pressing her handbag close to her chest to slow down her heart.

"Right! Give us a sign if you could hear me" said Alice.

The little camera lens protruded and retracted, then swiveled up and down along the vertical axis.

"Great! Now, can you see us?" said Alice with more excitement.

The little camera lens 'nodded' again.

"Fantastisk! It's all up to you now, Ayame-san"

Alice did a little dance in her head, knowing her non-Tootsuki friend could hear and see what was happening on their end. She threw a peace sign in front of the lens and stuck her tongue out. This was going to be awesome! Byakko carefully placed the mini stealth drone into the room as far as his arm could reach into the darkness. Then he quickly closed the shoji screen door without locking it, and did the same with the fusuma. Alice cringed as the straining and grinding down of the fusuma slid shut into place.

"What are you going to do with the fusuma paper that you cut out?" asked Alice, blinking up at him.

"Blu-tack"

Byakko pulled a strip of brand new blu-tack from its anti-adhesive wrapper that was tucked into his lock-picking kit and placed a bit onto each corner of the square piece of fusuma paper. He placed it perfectly in the little cut-out over the metal pull of the fusuma. Well he came prepared, didn't he? He quickly patted it down until it was as smooth and as leveled as possible. Alice grinned and flipped a lock of her silver lock from her eyes. As long as nobody looked too closely at it in that exact spot of where the metal pull was, then none would be the wiser.

They both stepped back and admired their… whatever the hell this was… handiwork? Vandalism? Either way, it was phase one of the plan accomplished. Now to continue their way to meet with Ojii-sama, stretch the meeting to an hour or so and then pick the drone up on the way back! Simple and easy!

Byakko picked up his gift-bag and shifted the paper-woven handles between his nimble fingers. Alice slipped her fingers into his other hand and gently tugged on his finger, only to find out that Byakko was back to sweating all over his forehead and his eyes were once again filled with anxiety and his hands were shaking. Ah min gud! Not again!

"Pffftt"

"What?" he groaned.

"Oh Byakko!"

Alice laughed and leapt into his arms. She took delight in his eyes widening in stunned surprise as he stumbled back slightly to catch her in his arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck and planted a sloppy wet kiss on his lips. His lilac-half ponytail tickled her arms. Once she pulled away, she shifted until she was at the right side of his hip, sitting all daintily into the crook of his elbows as he his strong arms remained looped under her thighs. In the past she loved turning her boyfriend's arms into her own custom made throne. It was the only way for her to be taller than him or at least eye level. Although he couldn't hold her for more than half an hour like this, bearing all her weight in his arms.

He stared back at her in mild exasperation.

"Come on. Let's get this over and done with. We have an hour with Ojii-sama remember?" Alice giggled, stroking her manicured nails along his chiselled jawline, and the other still resting against his toned shoulders. She could smell his natural pine and grassy scent better at this height.

Byakko snorted and began striding along the boardwalk towards Ojii-sama's place of residence. His foot-steps were heavy. Alice could hear the paper gift-bag swaying as it was still hooked around his fingers. She wasn't keen on him to sweating any more than he was already and soak his shirt.

"A Nakiri might see us like this" giggled Alice. She had this knack for making her laughs and giggles sound malicious.

"Still complaining about that?"


"Alright, phase two commencing. We have only an hour"

Ayame popped a mini arancini ball into her mouth as she quickly typed a few commands into her keyboard. Ohhhhh… she was going methodist now! All of a sudden, suspenseful music was playing in her mind, a mish-mash of instrumentals from various spy and action movies she'd watch in her life. First step was recalibration. Check that everything was in working order. Night vision on, make sure the sensors were working. Scan the area for size, distance, everything.. It was pretty tough installing the scissors and knife parts of the swiss-army knife into the stealth drone and program the receptor holding the knife and scissors to cooperate with the manipulator arm she attached from a different robot. So basically, this was probably eighty percent mini-stealth drone and about twenty percent junk. She was glad she started this project a long time ago. Who know Isshiki-senpai would provide such an opportunity to take it out on a mission. She guessed that this mini remote-controlled stealth drone's destiny was to help solve a murder mystery.

"It's taking longer to recalibrate this time"

The smooth voice of her boyfriend momentarily distracted her as he settled at her right side. Takumi-kun stared in wonder at her laptop screen. It was every shade of lime green. Ayame couldn't risk using a light source just in case it damaged anything that was photosensitive, so she opted for night vision.

She popped another mini-arancini ball in her mouth.

"It needs to gather data about the place first. It's a new environment. It would be really nice if I had time to dig up an air-pressure sensor and PPM counter to add to the mix" said Ayame.

Takumi-kun smiled beside her as he helped himself to the mini-arancini balls he made too. Everywhere they went together, he carried home-made snacks. Mini-arancini balls were the perfect comfort food for a secret operation like this. They were baby sized and so easy to just eat, one after the other. If Ayame wasn't careful, she could easily fill up on these without realising. Takumi-kun was still feeling tense today, but nowhere near as tense and nervous as she was earlier in the morning. Isami-kun had to psyche both of them up before departing the Aldini twin's apartment. She had to be absolutely careful. She practiced maneuvering the drone in places like Otou-san's office and her bedroom, Takumi-kun's and Isami-kun's bedroom. Chizuru-chan's room and Kuchiyose-kun's family tofu shop. until she was familiar with lots of tricky turns and corners. But this was a totally new area. Who knew what things the drone could bump into that could alert a passing Nakiri maid, should they hear it through the wall.

"Oh! Is it starting?"

The abrupt slam of the Polar Star barn door echoed across the large hay-filled area. Tadokoro-san scampered towards them with a canister of her famous chilled barely tea. It was Isshiki-san's idea to use the Polar Star barn for Ayame's part of the operation. So of course she had to procure Chizuru-chan's long-life laptop battery. Apparently Director Nakiri's staff have been dropping in and out of Polar Star Dormitory more often to 'update the students' on different rules and policies being instated. Rules and polices Tootsuki students could easily look up themselves on the school website, or be sent via school email. It wasn't like Polar Star Dormitory had no internet access… It was so obvious Director Nakiri wanted to keep a watchful eye on the Rebel Alliance. Staying in the Polar Star Dormitory building was far too risky.

Also, she couldn't believe Tadokoro-san had to sleep in this barn for a month because she failed the Polar Star Dormitory entrance exam that many times in her first year as a high schooler!

"Yeah, I'm going to start at this end of the room"

Ayame grasped the remote-control joystick delicately as she operated the drone to hover a good metre off the ground. Takumi-kun leaned in closer, eyes glued to the screen as the three of them watched the drone hover slowly towards the kyodai, or Japanese style dressing table, against the wall. She'd only ever seen a real kyodai at the museum. The tatami floor was covered in a thick film of dust, but the propellers of the drone blew them everywhere, clearing the surface so that Ayame could have a better look at what was on it too. She tried to minimise her admiration for the antique furniture and concentrated on searching for any useful evidence.

"Are you sure you can find anything of use? I mean, it's been so long…" said the bluenette hesitantly.

"A perfectly undisturbed crime scene can reveal evidence up to fifteen to twenty years" informed Ayame airily. She wanted to focus all her energy on controlling her drone. She angled the camera closer to the surface. "It's just a bowl with some hair-ties, pins, a hair brush, ring box and… an empty space?"

"Hmm? Is that significant?" asked Takumi-kun.

"Maybe…"

Ayame squinted out of habit. Not just an empty space. An empty space with three scratch marks.

She let the drone hover there. The empty space with the three scratch marks was on the left-hand side of the kyodai. Most people were right-handed so when they're styling their hair, putting on make-up or putting on jewellery, most of the stuff they need were placed on the right-hand side of the vanity, where everything could be in reach. Even if Lady Nadeshiko had a hand-maid to do all that for her, the same rule applied. Which was exactly how Lady Nadeshiko placed her things. So the scratch marks on the left-hand side meant something unrelated to jewellery, make-up and hair used to be there. The three scratches were deep enough to cut into the varnish, just a smidge when Ayame moved the camera closer. They weren't single clean scratches either, it was as if it was regularly scratched on the same spots. Ayame nibbled her bottom lip. Given by the deep indents, and how many repeated scratches were on the same places, Ayame surmised that something was regularly shifted on the spot, but was important enough to remain there. If she were to draw a line between the three scratched points, it made a scalene triangle, almost isosceles. Ayame tilted her head. The hypotenuse, or the longer side of the triangle was facing where Lady Nadeshiko would've sat if she—

"Photo frame. A photo frame is missing" blurted Ayame.

"Eh?" spluttered Megumi-san.

Ayame quickly tilted the joystick backwards and the camera view panned outwards as the drone moved away from the kyodai all together.

"The scratch marks are indents from where a photo frame used to be. You can see, the way it's position should be facing her. Photos are important. They are our memories. So what happened to the photo? Why did it have to be removed?" Said Ayame.

"I'm wondering what the picture was" said Tadokoro-san.

"My guess is it's a wedding photo" said Takumi-kun, stroking his chin.

"That would make sense. The wife would put the photo of the most important day of her life on her vanity, where she could see it all the time. When cleaning, the maid would pick it up, dust under it, put it back and re-adjusted it, which is why the scratch marks are so clear" said Ayame.

"But who would get rid of a wedding photo?" asked Tadokoro-san.

"The father who hates the son-in-law obviously" contributed Takumi-kun.

Ayame shook her head.

"I don't think so. That would be an insult to Lady Nadeshiko's memory, wouldn't it? From what I've been hearing from you guys, Senzaemon-dono loves her too much for that. He didn't even have the heart to get rid of her yuigonshō, remember? No matter how despicable her husband is, Nakiri Azami was still the man she loved with all her heart. For Senzaemon-dono to get rid of the picture that meant so much to her, where she'd have to be smiling so happily? I think that's too much"

Tadokoro-san and Takumi-kun looked at her oddly. One in astonishment, and the other in reverence. Ayame blushed under their gawking stares. She hoped she didn't overstep. Too late to take back her words now. She decided to inspect the rest of the kyodai and found the wood of the left lower edge dented in pretty badly, almost splintering… ouch… it sure took a beating, didn't it? She didn't mean to sound so authoritative on what the Nakiri Family members should or should not be feeling. But given all the different stories and information Takumi-kun, Isami-kun and Isshiki-san have been telling her about the whole scandal and more, she knew pretty much as much as they did. Ayame still considered herself an outsider to the Tootsuki brood sometimes, aside from Takumi-kun and Isami-kun of course, so she felt strange about knowing their Tootsuki student affairs so intimately.

'Isshiki-san wanted my help after all, so I my opinions should matter'

She flew the drone over to the other side of the kyodai, just to see if the photo frame was nearby. Their theory could easily be refuted just as much as a single photo frame falling off to the side by accident. Who knew? But Ayame had to make sure.

"Wait bella, what's that? Under the vanity"

Takumi-kun got up from his chair with a loud scrape and pointed to something obscure on the bright, green-lit screen. Ayame halted her hands in case she lost visual on whatever Takumi-kun spotted. Tadokoro-san leaned closer from behind and Ayame felt her breath over her right ear. She carefully leaned the joystick and the drone turned around. She pressed the arrow keys on her command pad until the camera angled and zoomed in. Something was reflecting off of the floor from what the night vision was showing.

"It's a piece of glass!" gasped Tadokoro-san.

Ayame knew she shouldn't be smiling, but she was. She lowered the drone and sure enough she spotted the piece sticking out from underneath the kyodai.

"I think we're about to find out what happened to the photo frame" said Ayame.

She calmly lowered the drone and turned off the propellers once it landed on the tatami. She typed something into the command pad before resuming control of the joystick. Suddenly the manipulative arm she constructed came to life and rigidly tucked itself under the kyodai to brush some more glass out from under the vanity. Luckily the vanity stood on feet that raised it off the tatami enough for her to stick her drone's manipulative arm under it. The sound of clinking glass came out from the laptop speakers as smaller glass shards came sliding out.

Suddenly, Ayame's joystick jammed.

"Oh! I've got something" she said.

"Fantastico" breathed out Takumi-kun.

Ayame typed something else into the command pad she carefully adjusted the joystick. The drone began to hover a few millimetres off the ground, blowing more dust. She practiced this maneuver before and began to reverse back. She watched the manipulative arm carefully so it didn't jam. Once she was satisfied, she pulled the joystick backwards further to make it go faster.

"Ah, that's the photoframe" said Tadokoro-san.

It indeed was. Ayame knew, it had to be it once the manipulative arm bumped against something bigger and heavier.

"But where's the photo?"

The photo was missing. The glass was all shattered, but the photo wasn't in the frame. It had been taken out. The photo frame was definitely smashed on purpose. Nothing as light as a photo frame could fall and break on something as soft as tatami. Then she remembered the bigger dent on the lower edge of the top surface of the kyodai. The perpetrator must've smashed the glass against the vanity.

Who would do a thing like that? Why not just pull it out from the back? Why break the glass at all and kick it under the kyodai?

It was done in rage.

"A missing photo is one thing to report back to Isshiki-san, but probably not something that could indicate hemlock poisoning… so let's move on to something else" said Ayame.

"Yeah" said Takumi-kun.

Ayame resumed her flight and the drone moved around the edges of the room again, scanning the walls. The lap top screen grew brighter green from the night vision, as it flew along the white walls and the inner shoji. She had a general idea of what to examine, but she never had an interest in forensic chemistry of any sort so… she was going to do what she could with the zero skills in that area she had. There was another door on the end of the room and as the drone flew in, she realised it was an adjoining bathroom. There could be something useful here. The drone flew up and she nibbled her lip again as she maneuvered it around. Bathrooms were trickier to do because it was smaller and filled with lots of stuff. She caught sight of the drone in the reflection of the mirror and couldn't help but giggle.

"Oh my! Is it possible to see your own reflection, I mean the drone's reflection, with night vision in the mirror with the lights off?" asked Tadokoro-san curiously.

"Night vision lens are simply lens with high sensitivity to light. Therefore, yes" said Ayame happily, smiling at the blue-headed chef. She grabbed the cup of chilled barley tea and took a big sip before resuming again.

"The arm thingy… it's made of Lego!" continued Tadokoro-san.

"I'm glad you noticed! Yes, I'm a fan of Lego" Ayame was filled with so much giddiness and her voice when high pitched to reflect it.

"Tadokoro-san… please, Ayame needs to concentrate" Takumi-kun mumbled under his breath, trying not to sound too assertive for the gentle soul showing interest in Ayame's drone.

She loved Lego. Lego was a budding engineer's toy. Takumi-kun was on the receiving end of her gushing over Lego more than once before. She had always wanted programmable Lego, specifically the Lego Mindstorms collection and build more little toy robots and program them to do lots of things. Simple things, but still getting her hands on some mechanical and mechatronic activities were always super fun! She received two sets from Okaa-san last year for her birthday and built something similar to the Mars Rover, but smaller, and the EV3 robot. The robot commander app was fully sick too! It took a few weeks to construct and program them and she could honestly say those were probably one of the best afternoons of her life. She had left over pieces, as Lego always provided extra, and built and programmed her own manipulative arm specifically for the decommissioned police drone. It just so happened that both the drone and the Lego Mindstorms used compatible programming language.

"Hmmm… that hand towel isn't hanging on the rack with all the others. I wonder what surprises it's got for us" said Ayame.

Takumi-kun continued to help himself on his own mini-arancini, but she noticed he left three behind. He always left three pieces of food behind for her when he was eating ever since she told him why the number three was her favourite number in the Fibbonaci sequence. She smiled widely and caught him smirking at her from the side. He was so adorable! She shook her head and refocused her attention. They were already twenty minutes into their hour. The hand towel looked like it was just thrown on the sink in the beautifully organised bathroom. The others were lined neatly and perfectly levelled on the towel rack, like in hotels. How incongruous. Ayame turned the manipulative arm on again and this time used the command pad to control it while she reserved the joystick to flying this time. She carefully turned the hand towel around and around to see if it revealed anything.

Yep.

"Stains" said Takumi-kun.

"What kind?" asked Tadokoro-san.

"Can't exactly tell with night vision, but it's definitely something" said Ayame.

"What do you make of this?" asked Tadokoro-san.

"It's a bit strange. I'm sure Lady Nadeshiko's hand-maids would've removed hand towels immediately after it's been used… and definitely with an ugly stain like that" Takumi-kun answered for Ayame. "But maybe they left it behind and didn't have time to take it away before Senaemon-dono sealed off the room…"

"But it was just left there. Nobody even attempted to wash it under the tap since the stain is still clearly visible! Why bother to move across the room and just leave it on the sink and then come back if they didn't have any intention to wash it? It's more trouble than just leaving it with Lady Nadeshiko… and then take it back on the way, which is what they're paid for" Ayame thought aloud.

"Maybe they simply f-forgot and c-couldn't remove it in time… like h-how they didn't have time to remake her bed after she d-died…" stuttered Tadokoro-san.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"But-"

"I-I think you're overthinking, mia cara. There's plenty of place we haven't searched yet" Takumi-kun cut her off before she prepared a school debate.

She'll let this loose thread go… for now. Tadokoro-san started to look like she would be eaten.

She felt Takumi-kun rub circles on her back, which he normally did to calm her down. Did he think she wasn't calm right now?! Ayame pursed her lips and she began typing on the command pad and another thin Lego arm appeared in the bathroom mirror. With precise taps on the single key, Ayame began cutting the stained part of the hand towel whilst the main manipulator arm was locked in place by the previous controls. She wasn't going anywhere without that stain. The Swiss army scissor ductaped to the Lego arm was indeed sharp. It took a few nights to work out the mechanics and programme to make it cut, but with the help of a few elastic bands, it worked. She just had to be slower with it. Tadokoro-san watched in utter fascination as Ayame snipped carefully away. Takumi-kun had seen her do this a many times before in preparation for this. She practiced cutting paper with the drone. They both knew that they would have to cut things out to bring back one way or another. The drone was too small to carry anything heavier than a wallet. If there was a call for it, Ayame would only be able to take back a fraction of whatever useful evidence she found, or indeed take pictures or videos, which she was currently doing now and saving the live feed onto her laptop.

"So… It's possible that it wasn't the maid who left it there because they would've been more professional and took it away… it was someone else" concluded Takumi.

"Who was allowed to visit Lady Nadeshiko?" asked Ayame.

"Her family and friends, and the maids, I imagine" offered Tadokoro-san.

"That includes her husband…" said Ayame softly.

Once Ayame managed to snip off the entire area of the stain, she pressed the command buttons and the drone opened up a receptacle and expertly tucked it in to keep it safe. Ideally, she wanted an evidentiary bag or a kitchen zip-lock bag but it would've been too flimsy to carry around with the drone… and too many Lego arms to make and program.

"I don't see anything else odd in the bathroom. Let's check the bed" said Ayame.

The droned hovered over-head, being careful not to hit the ceiling and banked to the left out of the bathroom back towards the bed. Dust kicked up all over the place again as she flew especially close to the window sill. The window that was to the right was boarded up too, making the room completely air tight. The bedsheets of the futon were absolutely gorgeous and Ayame craved to find out what colour they were. The embroidered cranes flying and dancing in the sewn ponds were incredibly detailed and the backdrop of the high mountains provided a relaxing and meditative visage. Judging by the shading, the colours must have been rich and deep. It was shame at the blankets were crinkled and thrown almost off to the side. It looked like the way she would throw off the covers on a blistering hot and humid night.

This must've been the point where Lady Nadeshiko couldn't stop coughing and hacking her lungs away, since that's what nasty respiratory distress could cause.

"Coughing… people usually cough and sneeze away from others. It's a reflex our parents teach us to be polite and not accidentally cover somebody with our germs. This side of the futon faces the window and that area is too small for people to kneel down and sit when visiting. She must cough on that side" said Ayame.

"And?" began Takumi-kun.

"If we're lucky we might find…"

The green-eyed girl pulled back the joystick to pull the drone up and over the raised futon. According to her calculations, it was raised about thirty centimetres off the ground. The drone banked to the left towards the side of the window. As soon as she angled the camera and zoomed in—

"There it is… I bet you that's dried blood"

The tatami floor was speckled with dark stains. Darker than the ones on the hand-towel. Judging by the splatter pattern, it sprayed outward as one would expect from a productive blood-filled cough. There wasn't a lot, since Lady Nadeshiko probably tried to cover her mouth with her hand, but luckily a few droplets passed through her fingers. It was impossible to tell with night vision if blood got onto the bedsheets too, because the patterns were just as dark. Damn… cutting the tatami mat would be harder. She had successfully cut a hand towel, so maybe this wouldn't be as hard as she thought. Then she had to pull out the big guns. Tap tap tap, went her fingers over the command pad. The scissors-toting Lego arm retracted and another arm extended to reveal the name-sake of the Swiss Army Knife. The actual knife. Ayame started feeling a bit hot in the barn a she sucked in a breath and lowered the drone. Once it settled at a reasonable height, she angled the knife to get the most force and quickly stabbed it into the tatami mat.

The crackle of knife meeting straw burst from the speakers. Gosh that was loud! She prayed to Kami-sama it wasn't too loud to penetrate through the sealed off walls. Ayame repeated the action a few times at different angles, cringing with each stab, until it successfully went through the mat and met floor boards. She had to jerk the joystick to make the drone flick up because the tip of the knife was kind of stuck, but managed to bump into the raised frame of the futon with a loud thud. They were forty-minutes into their hour now so they had to work quickly. Ayame fumbled with the controls momentarily as the stress began to build to make the deadline. She swapped out the Lego arms and brought back the scissors. She gently slid one of the scissor blade through the opening in the tatami and began cutting away.

"Well done, mia cara" Takumi-kun reached over and planted a kiss on the side of her head.

"But the blood stain is sixteen years old. Wouldn't it be useless by now?" asked Tadokoro-san in a worried voice.

"Dried blood samples that's been properly archived for decades with the police due to cold-cases can still be analysed for DNA and toxins if it's reopened. This room has done a good job in keeping things damp-free, light-free and undisturbed for so long, so hopefully the dried blood stain could still yield evidence for hemlock poisoning" said Ayame.

She thought back to the few times when Otou-san mentioned stuff related to his work or in general police work. That sounded like the way she remembered it only with less swearing. It was from a particular night when the Kanda household gathered together to watch a detective movie for some quality family time. Otou-san was being his usual snarky self by criticising and condemning the main protagonist's shoddy crime scene investigation work. She and Okaa-san knew it wasn't a hundred percent accurate portrayal of police procedures, but it was just a movie for Kami-sama's sake!

"But does hemlock have enough time to get into the bloodstream?" asked Tadokoro-san.

"I don't know, but if the blood was coughed out, then so must the saliva. Hopefully the traces of saliva are also mixed with the blood before it dried" said Ayame.

"Are you sure?" asked Tadokoro-san again.

Ayame sighed and crammed all three mini-arancini balls into her mouth. They've gone cold but she didn't care because it was still delicious. She chewed it up animatedly and gulped them all down before speaking.

"My task is to bring back potential evidence. Whether it can be used or not, by whoever has the skills to analyse it is something Isshiki-san needs to figure out. Hopefully, he thought that far" if her frustrations were showing, then she didn't mean it.

"I-I'm sorry, Kanda-san. I-It's just… There's a lot of 'hoping' going on here… and some of us r-rebels don't know what to do…" Tadokoro-san chuckled nervously with a hint of doubt. Ayame felt her heart splinter with shame at the quivering in her small voice.

"Don't worry. Rebellions are built on hope" Takumi-kun exclaimed passionately by Ayame's side. She found Takumi-kun very romantic at this moment.

That seemed to bring confidence back into Tadokoro-san. She could instantly feel them brimming with relief and some measure of forced happiness on either side of her and it brought a magnificent sense of achievement in her heart, despite the large possibility of this failing. This was monumental for the Rebel Alliance and Ayame was proud to be alongside them, whether this was going to work or not. The flutter in her chest intensified as she successfully cut a piece of the tatami flooring with the biggest blood droplet and carefully tucked it into a separate receptacle built into the drone. Wouldn't want cross-contamination. She sighed and relaxed her body into the chair, which she hadn't done ever since they started this whole operation. The mid-afternoon sunlight shone through the highest window of the barn, like sun streaming through the tail stained-glass windows of a cathedral, onto the three teens huddled over a study desk. They were one step closer to bringing down Nakiri Azami, assuming that Isshiki-san was right all along.

Ayame didn't mind doing the leg-work because they were getting there. So getting there, alright.

"Time's almost up. Alice-san and Kuchiyose-san should be on the way back. I hope their meeting with Senzaemon-dono was okay" Tadokoro-san helpfully reminded them.

For Kuchiyose-kun's sake, Ayame hoped their thingy-ma-jig was disaster free too. She, Alice-san and Chizuru-chan both had pretty sore arms forcing him into that really expensive outfit Alice-san bought. That boy was a hot mess. Chizuru-chan tried to use reverse psychology and told him he could just back out now and nobody would see him as a coward. After all, it was the Demon Food King of Japan he was introducing himself to as Nakiri Alice's boyfriend, not just any old grand-dad. He and Alice could make it official in a few year's times, after he built his career a bit first if he still saw himself as unworthy of Alice-san. That seemed to do the trick and Kuchiyose-kun stopped making a fuss. It was one of Chizuru-chan's sub-textual challenges thrown into the ring and there was no way he was going to prove their snappy best-friend was right. Her friends were so odd.

"Oh I almost forgot!" yelled Ayame. "Before leaving, always check the—"

"Seems like a lot of food when you think the Nakiri family are all on edge"

"Nothing makes you hungrier or more tired than anxiety. When my husband lost his job to a disloyal colleague, he ate his way through four bowls of donburi at one sitting and slept around the clock"

"Did it make him feel better?"

"No, but I think it helped pass the time"

What was that? Were they maids' voices? Shit. shit. Double shit. Tadokoro-san clapped a hand over her mouth and Takumi-kun went ram-rod straight. Ayame lowered the drone beside Lady Nadeshiko's futon, but kept the propellers on. She needn't worry about a stealth drone, but she couldn't help feeling antsy anyway. She was too afraid to move it anywhere. There was shuffling on the other side of the wall. So sound could still penetrate through at a reasonable loudness. She knew they were standing right in front of the what used to be the doorway. Damn it! They were stopping and having a chat! Don't they have work to do?! Kuchiyose-kun and Alice-san would surely be almost on their way back now! Maybe she could just hover her way to the doorway and just park in front of it to the side, so at least she'll be ready. Ohh… but she really needed to check the wastepaper-basket before finishing. Searching through the waste-basket could reveal more useful clues on the shady circumstances of Lady Nadeshiko's death, like somebody trying to get rid of other evidence.

"Bella, what are you doing!?" Hissed Takumi-kun. It was as if he was scared the maids, hundreds and hundreds of metres away, could hear them through the screen.

"I need to check the wastepaper-basket" she hissed back, playing along as if they were physically there in Lady Nadeshiko's room.

She carefully manoeuvred the drone and it whizzed silently across the floor space towards the wastepaper basket she earlier spotted near the bedside table. The drone flew higher and Ayame made sure to go slow and angled the camera until they were directly on top. The wind created by the propellers tunneled into the wicker wastepaper basket and its contents cascaded up in the air in a mini tornado. Ayame clucked her tongue in annoyance because she couldn't get a clear visual on what else was in the waste basket with dust and paper flying all over.

"It's just paper" said Tadokoro-san, squinting at the glaring green screen.

"Paper that's been torn up into confetti" Ayame smirked. Who goes through all the trouble of shredding paper into tiny pieces before putting it in the bin? What's so confidential? She began trying to bank the drone to the right, to stop the paper from flying.

SLAM!

"HEY GUYS! YOU GET ANYTHING YET?!"

"WAAAHHH!"

Ayame's hand slipped and jerked the joystick forward. A distinct crunch sounded as the screen rocketed from right to left at dizzying speeds. The Karakura student scrambled to grab the joystick to stop the drone from ricocheting off the wall and the bedside table like a trapped fly. She slammed her fingers on the command buttons to retract all arms from bumping into anything else.

"Ah… Chiyo-san, did you hear that?"

Oh no! The maids!

"YUKIHIRA! Can't you see this is a delicate operation?! You almost ruined everything!" Takumi-kun fumed from beside her.

Ayame was too busy trying to convince her soul to stay in her body from being frightened from heaven and back to pay attention to the loud entrance of one Yukihira Souma. Her body was frozen stiff as she hoped the drone was the same. The loud and creaky slam of the barn door continued to reverberate all over the space. Ayame had long acclimated her sense of smell to the fresh hay to the point of no longer noticing it, so a breath of fresh air from the outside world courtesy of Yukihira-san's enthusiastic entrance reminded her she was, yes, still in a barn.

"Oh. My bad, my bad sorry… Did something break?"

"Not yet. But if it does, I'll break you" threatened Takumi-kun.

The scruff of shoes traipsing through the hay riddled floor made its way towards them. Ayame breathed out a quite phew and settled the drone down on its feet, turning off the propellers altogether. Just as the boys began to squabble (initiated by Takumi-kun), Ayame angrily quietened them down with a loud and shrill shooosh! So that she could hear the two maids' conversation, to gauge her next course of action. Everybody huddled around and watched the screen and peeled their ear with rapt attention.

"I could have sworn I heard something… no it was probably n-nothing. Impossible"

"I used to get the shivers whenever I pass by this section of the manor. It was the Late Lady Nadeshiko's private room, you know"

"Yes, I've heard. I expected the disowned Nakamura Azami to demand to see her room after all these years, but he hasn't"

"Quite right too. He doesn't deserve to, especially not after what he did to Erina-sama. It's already bad enough that he was the last person to see Nadeshiko-sama, Kami-sama rest her soul, right before she died"

WHAT

"Mio… Dio... Ayame, all this is recorded, right?"

"You bet your family-secret pana cotta it is. Which by the way, I'd like some tonight" said Ayame, turning around to beam at her boyfriend.

"Of course, mia cara" he smiled back at her.

"If Azami was the last person to see her alive in that room, then that definitely means he poisoned her himself!"

Maybe yes, maybe no. Either way, Yukihira-san clapped Tadokoro-san on the back, sending her forward before bracing herself again. The red-headed chef's face was full-force sunshine and his golden eyes twinkled in the light streaming into the barn. Even Takumi-kun looked extremely pleased, the area around his beautiful blue eyes crinkled up as he smiled broadly. Each and every student in the barn felt like they were getting closer, and just needed to reach a little more and Nakiri Azami's curse will break, setting the school free.

"Come on, let's get back to work. The Nakiri's aren't going to pour the tea themselves"

Ayame sagged in relief as the quiet sound of the maids grew further and further away. Things were definitely looking up. Ayame checked her watch. Five more minutes. They had another puzzle to solve and that involved going through Lady Nadeshiko's wastepaper-basket. Ayame resumed the flight function and extended the manipulator arm. She turned it around and grabbed the rim of the basket. The whole thing was tugged downwards until it fell on its side, sending the torn pieces of paper flying out. Ayame quickly cut of the flight function and the drone fell with a dull thud back onto its feet. Wouldn't want to blow away more potential evidence. Although, she already made a right mess. She'd be sure to apologise somehow for violating Erina-sama's deceased mother's room.

Ayame expected the pieces of paper to be of uniform colour. For example, shouldn't writing paper, or printed paper be white on both sides? But almost half the pieces were dark shades. Upon closer inspection and adjustment of the light sensitivity for the night-vision lens, she carefully flipped a few pieces around with the manipulator arm.

Ah… these were pieces of a photograph. Ding, ding, ding.

"Ouch, somebody was really pissed, look at how many times that photo's been ripped" commented Yukihira-san.

Ayame continued to turn pieces of ripped paper around, inspecting both the photo side, and the white side.

"Earlier we found a broken photo frame kicked under the vanity. Even the pieces of glass were kicked under it. But no photo… until now— Oh! Look! Look!" Ayame suddenly squealed.

A finger print.

A dark fingerprint on the white side.

"Isshiki-senpai is going to have a good day" Yukihira-san gasped in awe.

"I don't have another receptacle to put this in. I'm going to have to hold onto it like this" Ayame made sure to lock the manipulator arm so that the piece of photo-confetti was secured. She turned on the propellers again and didn't care the paper blew all over the place. She made her way back to where Kuchiyose-kun had first deposited it. Once she made it, she opened all her receptacles for Kuchiyose-kun and Alice-san to see.

"I've asked Alice-san to pack some plastic zip-lock bags and a tweezer in her handbag to put evidence in, so we can keep them as safe and uncontaminated as possible"

Ayame released her fingers from the laptop and the joystick. Her fingers felt sore and severely cramped so she flexed them in and out to get the muscles working again. The skin of her palm was an angry red colour from all her work. Takumi-kun must have noticed because he took her clammy hands in his and started rubbing them together, massaging them. Ayame inwardly purred.

"How fast do you think you can get these analysed?" asked Ayame.

"The only person we know with a microscope or the knowledge for this is Shiomi-sensei. But… she'll be leaving Tootsuki by the end of the day" said Yukihira-san, scratching the back of this red-head.

"Oh no! Did she get fired?! Poor Hayama-kun! Is she being kicked out?!" Tadokoro-san bolted to Yukihira-san's side, fear and worry etched across her face, jumping to the worst conclusion. Shiomi-sensei sounded vaguely familiar to Ayame.

"Nah! Actually, she's got a new job. Keep it under your hats though, nobody is supposed to know, even Azami" Yukihira-san waved his arms up and down exaggeratedly and hushed his voice as if there was somebody outside spying on them.

"Where is she going?" asked Takumi-kun.

"To the University of Tokyo"

"EEEHHH?!"


Shiomi is officially safe with a new job, Congratulations girl! Kuchiyose. You need to buck up, man. Please. And Alice, cut him some slack. Please.

So what have we got?
(1) Suspicious stain on an unwashed hand towel in the adjoining bathroom,
(2) Darker stain which Ayame ASSUMES is blood on the tatami beside the futon
(3) Single fingerprint on the white side of a torn piece of photo in the bin, that's been aggressively smashed from a photoframe.
(4) Some chit-chat from the maids - Azami was the last person to see Nadeshiko before she died.

I know the Rebel Alliance are still students and they don't have professional knowledge in what they're doing. All they know is they have to do SOMETHING, which is better than NOTHING. It just means they need help from the 'right' sort of people. I was ambitious in this chapter. There's a hell of a lot to take in, but I hope you enjoyed the misadventures Ayame, Takumi, and the gang are trekking in plotting to save the school. I'm pretty sure at this point, this romance story is becoming a murder mystery haha.

I'd love to know what you guys think, see you soon! :)

Signing off

- TripWire-dono