In the clubroom, Setsu pushed up her sunglasses while Dai made the money rain.
"I rich, you rich! Who rich? We rich!"
Giggling, Ayame counted the next stack of bills.
Our fall fundraiser had been the best in Konoha history. There were kids wearing masks for weeks after, reenacting scenes and begging their parents to buy them roses. We had made enough money to cover not only the full year but the next year too!
Rosy, Tamaki hugged Ayame. "And we couldn't have done it without Ayame and her curry!"
Ayame shook her head. "No, Dai's idea to do the games was genius."
"Nothing compared to Setsu and her awesome script!" Dai shuffled more money in Setsu's direction, causing her sunglasses to fall. She laughed.
"Three cheers to Tamaki!" I said, raising my water bottle.
The rest of the Dropouts raised their bottles.
Tamaki braced herself for the shower of money we threw her way. "Oh guys, stop!"
We were all in such good moods that we barely noticed the sound of Takahashi's footsteps. We didn't lower our voices. By the time I realized he was outside our door, he had already changed his mind, not wanting to deal with us.
The success of our fundraiser didn't make Takahashi any friendlier towards us. In fact, he was even colder, if that was at all possible. Dai snorted that he was just jealous. It was clear we were doing the student representative job better than he ever did.
It was easy to forget about Takahashi when the entire school loved us. Students of all grades knew my name. Even those who hadn't known me well now smiled or greeted me in the hallways. Ayame, who had already been popular, became one of the most popular in school, getting lots of admiration letters. Tamaki, Setsu, and Dai also got lots of respect and praise.
Because we'd always get together to make school decisions, everyone called us the student council. We liked that and kept the name. We decided to give ourselves titles too, like the adults with their councils.
Tamaki chose to be the secretary. Ayame was the treasurer. Setsu was the head of communications, and Dai was the head of disciplinary. I was still the good old student representative, a job that I got better and better at.
One day, I dropped by the police station to hand in a few folders. There was nothing important inside, just paperwork that all big groups in the village had to fill out from time to time. Shisui beamed when he saw me.
We chatted. He was as happy as a cloud, his dream of going on a date with Kurenai coming true. It was just too bad all this paperwork was in his way. The paperwork made him groan.
He then asked about me. When he learned I was still without apprenticeship, he blinked.
"Wait, wait." He hopped over the counter. "Hold on, I can't believe I haven't thought of this. Squirt, why don't I just hire you?"
"EH?"
"Yeah! Old fashioned nepotism, let's go!" he exclaimed cheerfully, patting my back.
It made lots of sense to him. The Uchiha Police department was a family business anyway, and I was family. He could train me. I'd have an apprenticeship, and he'd have more free time. It was a win-win.
"But I'm not a ninja," I said.
"Trust me, very little ninja skills needed," he said, patting the giant stacks of papers. "Just good old reading. And stamping. Lots of stamping for ya."
Maybe even one day I could even join him on the field. There were many small cases that needed to be cracked. I could be his assistant detective.
My eyes went wide. That sounded amazing! I rushed to nod my head.
"Great!" he cheered. "You're hired!"
Before I could cheer with him, he plopped the mountain of papers on me. I fell flat on the ground.
… maybe I shouldn't have agreed so eagerly, I thought, head spinning.
From then on, I reported to Shisui twice a week. I would read through each of the files and sort them, only to get mountains more piled on my desk.
It didn't occur to me until the tenth mountain that Shisui may have duped me.
"Ahh, who am I kidding, Shisui totally duped me!" I yelled, pulling my hair. This was an awful job! No wonder Shisui complained about it for years.
Tears down my face, I could do nothing but stamp the next page.
But at least an apprenticeship was an apprenticeship, and my friends were happy for me.
I took back all my complaints after I learned Emi had turned Tamaki down. All the other designers and seamstresses rejected her too. This, after Tamaki had worked so hard to improve her sewing.
We tried our best to comfort her, but the hurt was bad. We could all feel it. No matter how tough and sure Tamaki tried to act, we could sense she was scared too, being the only one left in our grade without an apprenticeship.
Ayame brought food. Setsu and Dai offered to help her look for jobs after exams were over.
I felt helpless. Then I saw Riku in domestic arts. He was the best in class at sewing. I approached him after class, explaining to him the situation. I held up some of Tamaki's sewing samples.
He flipped the fabrics over, examining the stitchings, looking very thoughtful.
"The lines are neat," he said. "A little tight, but precise. It's really not bad… maybe even as good as some professionals."
"Then why would they reject her?"
At this, Riku gave a sad smile. He couldn't say for sure. What he did know was that Tamaki shouldn't take the rejections to heart. Sometimes the problem was not with yourself. Sometimes it was circumstance.
He explained that even if Tamaki was good at sewing, many girls in Konoha specialized in sewing. She was fighting in one of the most competitive fields in the village. Not only that, there weren't many places hiring for that type of role. And the places that did hire, they might be saving the spot for a family member or close friend.
My eyes widened.
"Some things are just outside your control," Riku said kindly, handing me back the samples.
Riku himself liked childcare and was good at it, having taken care of many of his nieces and nephews. But as it was not a job for boys, he ended up going into cooking instead. And even though he wasn't as strong at cooking, with many girls better at it than him, the bosses still preferred him and hired him.
He wasn't the only one who didn't get their first choice. Most of the class didn't. Some because of where they lived. Others because of who their parents were. Some just had bad timing, ready too early or too late.
Seeing my expression, he exhaled gently. But maybe…
If Tamaki wanted, Riku could work with her on her technique. And she could try applying again.
A lot of times, it came down to luck. But that didn't mean perseverance didn't matter.
"Ah!" Snapping out of it, I bowed crazily. "Thank you, thank you!"
He sweated, holding up his hands. "No, thank you, Miss Rep."
Riku's words ended up settling very heavily in my stomach. When I went to work at the station the next day, I was on my best behavior. No matter how boring, I did not complain once, obediently stamping the papers.
From his side of the desk, Shisui noticed my quiet and grinned. He ruffled my hair.
"Okay, I lost the bet. Honestly thought you'd quit by now."
I furiously shook my head. "Why would I quit? I finally have an apprenticeship!"
As far as apprenticeships went, I knew mine was extremely prestigious. I felt bad, because I had gotten it so easily too. I certainly didn't go through the same harsh interviews that Tamaki had.
"Shisui?"
"Hm?"
"I know our family all join the police, but can other people join too?"
Shisui blinked. He lowered his tea, confused where the question was coming from.
"Er… I don't see why not. I don't see why any shinobi in their right mind would want to join though," he joked.
"What about non-ninja?"
He looked at me funnily.
"Like me," I whispered.
He settled down his mug. "Squirt, I already told you, you don't need to be a ninja to do what you're doing."
"Then if someone who's not a ninja... and not me... want my job, then you'll interview them? And you'll interview me too, and if they're better, you'll give them my job?"
Shisui twitched, trying to untangle what I was trying to say.
"Okay, if you're trying to quit…" he began.
AH! I wanted to stamp his forehead, the dummy! That was not my point at all!
"No! Just-" I deflated. "I just want things to be…"
I didn't know the right word. I wanted people to get their first choice. I wanted people to be able to go where they wanted, as long as they liked it enough and worked hard enough. I didn't want to see Tamaki heartbroken after sewing all those perfectly good and cute samples.
I wanted to say "fair", because the feeling I had was "unfair".
But who was being unfair? Who wasn't trying to be kind? Who wasn't trying to do the right thing?
"I just want things to be better," I ended up saying.
Shisui stared at me. Finally, he rubbed his face.
"Okay, you're dismissed for today."
"Eh?!"
"Don't you have exams this week? Go. Go study." Grumbling, he brought his tea back up. "Man, and I thought Itachi was the kill-joy. Can't even get a minion without a serving of guilt on the side."
I pouted. "Shisui, promise me-"
"Yes yes! Your evil overlord will be an equal opportunity employer!" he said, beckoning me away. "Don't blame me if you get fired!"
"As if! I'll be the best minion ever!"
He stuck out his tongue.
I stuck out my tongue back. Grinning, I closed the station door behind me.
I went to school the next day, hoping to tell Tamaki about Riku's offer. I found her before class. She was returning everyone's blue booklet into their desks. We made eye contact.
I was about to join her side when there came an explosion. We heard a scream from the hallway.
Immediately, Dai jumped up from her seat. The two of us ran for the door.
I thought a fight had broken out. I expected to find the usual delinquents or the bad girl crowd, but there were only scared everyday students, frozen in place.
There was smoke. I coughed, waving the air.
Takahashi had arrived at the scene before we did. In the middle of the hallway, he was holding a limp student, calling her name again and again. The area around them was blackened with ash, from the floor all the way to the walls.
Takahashi kept calling. But no matter how much he called, Mimi did not wake up.
Dai found the cause of the accident. Shaking, she held it up to me.
It was Mimi's summoning scroll.
.
The club room was quiet. My friends and I stared at the summoning scroll on the table in the middle of the room.
It had been two days since the explosion, and Mimi was still unconscious in the hospital. I never got to see Mimi myself, not even to send flowers, Takahashi viciously shutting the door in my face.
I learned that Takahashi and Mimi were brother and sister, and that their dad was the principal.
Takahashi was rightfully angry. All the things he had yelled at me in the hallway, I deserved.
Setsu had enough of the silence. She got up.
Against my protests, she picked up the summoning scroll. Nothing happened.
I couldn't breathe.
"Setsu, please don't touch it!" Until I could get a ninja adult to study what went wrong, no one should touch it. It was too dangerous.
My eyes went teary.
I couldn't believe I had messed up so badly. Worse, I had done it while being told repeatedly that this would happen.
I thought Setsu would be the most scared of us but she was strangely unafraid. She did not put the scroll down, studying the burnt ends. She brought it up to her nose. Then she looked at Tamaki, who closed her eyes and nodded.
"Ayae… Tamaki and I have been thinking. We think you should hold off the scroll ban."
"What!"
"Hundreds of students have been carrying them with no accident for months. A few more days should be fine," Tamaki said quietly.
My mouth remained open in disbelief. A few more days for… what? Another accident to happen? I would have collected all the scrolls the same morning of the explosion, if that had been possible.
Only it wasn't.
Life at school had already changed. I had been the one to change it.
Many students and teachers now depended on scrolls. Some had even sold their backpacks. It was impossible to take everyone's scrolls, which had all their books, the day before the big exam. In the end, I could only ask the principal to postpone exams, and ask everyone to be extra careful with their scroll until the student council figured out what to do.
But a scroll ban seemed obvious. It was just a matter of how, without making everyone hate us.
I didn't think we'd be divided.
Tamaki inhaled.
"Ayae, we can't rush into anything right now, not until we know what's going on. We can't afford to spread more confusion."
We had a lot of people we had to think about.
The students and parents.
The teachers and principal.
The civilian council.
Us.
In the end, I could only nod numbly. Ayame held my shoulders.
Tamaki was the most clear-minded. We let her take charge. She wrote on the chalkboard.
First, we had to understand why the scroll exploded.
If there was something wrong with the scroll itself, then we needed to go to Teacher Iruka, who gave us those scrolls.
If there was something wrong with the sealing, then we needed to go to Aunt Mikoto, who performed the jutsu.
But we checked and checked, and the scroll was fine, and the sealing was fine.
Tamaki crossed both possibilities from the board.
Then maybe it was wrongly used.
So we checked that too. Mimi was clumsy. She could have dropped it. But we dropped it, we banged it, we did all sorts of tests, and it was fine.
The quality of the scroll was good, the seal was good. The more tests we did, the more guilty I felt for doubting Teacher Iruka and Aunt Mikoto. It was clear both of them had put a lot of thought into safety. I couldn't imagine how they'd feel if they thought they had been responsible for a student getting hurt.
In the end, Tamaki crossed out misuse as a possibility from the board too.
Setsu finally said what she thought.
"Ayae, I don't think this was an accident." The burnt ends hadn't looked right. The explosion didn't look like a scroll malfunction. It looked like someone rigging it with explosion powder to make it look like a scroll malfunction.
It took me a minute to understand what she was saying.
"Are you saying-? But why would anyone want to hurt Mimi?!"
That was what we had to find out.
So we asked our classmates. But as far as anyone knew, no one disliked Mimi. Mimi was clumsy but sweet. She had good grades and never caused trouble.
When we read through her blue booklet, we saw nothing unusual either. She wrote that she aspired to do well in class, which was what most students wrote. She spent all her time studying and put lots of hours in homework. No hint of a bully.
We decided to flip through everyone else's booklets too, in case we missed anything. One of the answers caught my eye.
I found Nanami.
"Hi Nanami!"
She jolted. "Hi! What is it, Ayae?"
I showed her her booklet.
Has anyone you know been behaving strangely lately?
"You wrote Mimi," I said.
Nanami went wide-eyed. Suddenly she looked scared.
I rushed to explain no, no, no one was in trouble. I explained that the student council was investigating the accident, and we just wanted to know more about Mimi, since Mimi wasn't awake to tell us. I didn't say we suspected someone might have tried to hurt her.
Nanami shook her head furiously. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I didn't mean… I only wrote that because…" She shrunk and bit her lip. "I thought Mimi looked tired and got worried. But I didn't mean anything by it! I just felt like I needed to put something down… so it wouldn't be blank."
I lowered my shoulders.
Oh.
While I was questioning Nanami, Dai had gone to speak to Yuuka, who had become close friends with Mimi, especially after the play.
Yuuka was a very open and honest person. She immediately told Dai everything. She said Mimi and Takahashi had a recent fight, and that her brother could be an awful bully at home. Mimi was super smart, but living with a guy like him, no wonder she had such low self-esteem. She had looked so defeated and ill coming to school.
Yuuka huffed. She was glad I ran the school now, and not Takahashi.
No one else knew anything.
I took the chalk from Tamaki and crossed out the possibility of someone targeting Mimi.
Tamaki sighed. That left one last possibility.
When she wrote it, I froze.
"If they weren't targeting Mimi," Tamaki said, "then most likely they were targeting Ayae."
.
Tamaki had the suspicion from day one, so she had Setsu listen for any bad rumors about me. There weren't any. I had no more hate than Mimi did. So Tamaki dropped the idea.
But after more time, the idea came back. Tamaki realized… it might not be personal.
"Ayae, if you think about it, you're more powerful than the principal right now. Outside the ninja, you're the most powerful kid of our generation."
Setsu agreed. "You were already top tier at the Academy. But here, you're number one, no question. No one even comes close. Even I…" She glanced at Ayame and Dai. "We have become different. Just being friends with you means people will listen to us. You're so powerful, I don't think anyone can disagree with you. I don't think anyone can say bad things about you."
If anyone wanted to challenge me, they would have to do it indirectly.
Like making one of my summoning scrolls explode.
"That's crazy! If they don't like something I did, then they should just-!"
… tell me.
Like what Takahashi had tried to do.
I fell quiet.
"Is it Takahashi?" Ayame had to ask, holding me tight.
Tamaki folded her arms. "Maybe."
"No way, Mimi's his sister!" I said. I refused to believe it. I had seen Takahashi's expression in the hallway. I had seen the way he held Mimi in his arms.
Tamaki was less sure. She didn't think Takahashi was someone who'd hurt his own sister because of a sibling fight. But using his sister to make a point…
I refused to budge. I didn't believe it.
Ayame looked at Tamaki with worried eyes. "Let's say it isn't him. Who else would have a problem with Ayae?"
Dai came up with the normal suspects. The pranksters, the delinquents, the bad girls. They tended to cause trouble, regardless of who was in charge. She also pulled out Takahashi's bad-people list.
We agreed to split up and question each of the groups.
I took the bad girls since they were the most dangerous.
I learned they liked to hang out in the abandoned industrial lot behind the entertainment district. I searched for a long time, unable to find them, until I finally noticed a cigarette on the ground. The tip was still burning.
I glanced around before looking up.
"Ah!"
I couldn't find the right door to get into the building, so I climbed. It wasn't too bad. Boarded windows went all the way up, with balconies in between.
When I flipped over to the roof, I found them. I coughed at the bad smoke smell.
Noticing me, all the girls stopped. Immediately they had me surrounded, knives and batons out.
"Miss Rep."
Their leader, Ise, did not get up from her seat by the vent. Her friend did not get up either, his head on her lap. He casually swung his yo-yo.
"Don't you know it's rude to come to parties uninvited," Ise said.
I gulped.
Sweating, I held up both hands. "I just want to talk."
Ise gave this look that said, go on.
"It's about Mimi…"
"Who the hell's Mimi?"
"The principal's daughter," the bad boy said lazily.
Ise raised an eyebrow.
I lowered my hands. "And about the summoning scroll..."
It was the first time the bad girls heard about the accident. They skipped school often, and as it was exams week, they saw even less reason to go.
The bad girls didn't pay attention to the scrolls either. At first, they bullied a few of the underclassmen to demonstrate how they worked, but quickly learned it was impossible to hide anything in there. It wasn't even possible to sneak in a paper note let alone any weapons. After that, they lost interest.
Ise leaned in. "Sorry, Miss Rep, you've got the wrong group. We don't do subtle. If we're responsible for anything, I guarantee you'll know it's us."
Wah, why was her tone so scary!
"Um, when you do do things…" Her eyes were so intense, I nearly lost my words. Her stare felt like it could cut. Her eyeliner was as sharp as a knife.
"Um… maybe…" I dropped my shoulders. "If there's anything you're not happy with, you can tell me? In case I can help."
Like in the case with Kasa, I thought. Maybe there didn't need to be a fight.
Ise grinned. "And why would you help us, Miss Rep?"
"Because I'm the student representative," I said, showing my extra wristband. "And you're students."
The bad boy stopped toying with his yo-yo. He cast me a glance.
Ise still looked amused. Finally she broke her gaze, reaching for her drink.
"Okay," she said, surprisingly agreeable.
.
Both the prankster and delinquent groups sang nothing but praises. They didn't like me, but they didn't dislike me either. They hated Takahashi.
Some even looked up to me as a leader. With me in charge, normal school had so much more money and power and freedom. No one dared mess with us.
Life was good. They had no reason to challenge me and ruin a good thing.
Takahashi's bad-people list turned out to be useless.
Ayame had been shocked to see Reina's name on it. Reina had been written up for 'moral corruption', which sounded super bad. So Ayame approached Reina during the card game tournaments at lunch.
But Reina just groaned.
Reina confessed yes, she did get written by Takahashi. But all she did was bring in some drawings.
When Ayame asked why Takahashi would bust her for drawings, Reina glanced around and whispered, "It was BL, okay?"
She explained BL stood for boy's love. Her drawing had two boys hugging each other with a heart in between them. Takahashi confiscated it. Reina had put a lot of effort into her picture, so she was upset she never got it back.
So she drew another picture, this time of Takahashi kissing a boy.
"It was just a joke," Reina said, making a face. "Who would want to kiss Takahashi?"
But Takahashi didn't find it funny and put her on the permanent bad-people list.
And that was the story.
Hearing it, we could only facepalm.
AHH, we were nowhere closer to solving this case!
I blinked.
I bolted up. "Oh shoot, my apprenticeship! I got to go!"
Dai had an idea. "Hey, since you're in the police now, maybe you can get us some detective guides. Like on how to solve cases and stuff."
I beamed. That was a great idea. I could even explain the situation to Shisui and ask for his advice. We agreed to not involve the adults yet, but Shisui should be okay.
But before I could leave the club room, I heard a book drop.
Tamaki did not pick it up. She walked back to the chalkboard.
"Police," she said, eyes wide.
She turned to us.
"Why now?" she asked. "If someone wanted to challenge Ayae, why now?" Why do something now, when the entire school was already on our side. When everything was going so well. With the extra money, we had gotten better desks. Broken cubicles and bathroom stalls got fixed. The food was better. School spirit was high. Even the delinquents hadn't felt the need to act up.
The person who did this, they had been quiet for months. What had changed to make them want to act now?
Tamaki added 'police' to the board.
I lowered my bag. "The person… doesn't like the police?" I looked at the board. "But we've already questioned all the groups who wouldn't like the police."
"No…" Ayame whispered.
"There is one more group," Setsu said, realizing it too.
A group who did not like the idea of an Uchiha in charge of their school, a girl who now also worked for the shinobi police.
I had forgotten all about them until Tamaki wrote it on the board.
Sekai Heiwa.
.
Sekai Heiwa was a secret club of twelve, or thirteen, or fifteen students, depending on the rumor. No one really knew. Not even the members themselves knew, speaking to each other through code and buttons. There was no leader.
"How do you know?" Dai asked Tamaki, confused. This was the first time she heard about the leader thing.
Tamaki hugged her arms. "Because they approached me."
Ayame's eyes widened. "You mean… you also got a button pin in your desk?"
"Yes. And they talked to me," she confessed.
Setsu and Dai exchanged a look, alarmed.
"You know who they are?!"
"Yes. No!" Tamaki needed to sit down. "I know who spoke to me, yes, but not who the members are."
We were so confused. Breathing, Tamaki explained.
Despite being anti-ninja, Sekai Heiwa used ninja techniques. One of the techniques was doubletalk.
In doubletalk, all conversations had two meanings. There was the surface meaning that normal people would hear. But there was also the hidden meaning that members would hear.
That was how the ideas of Sekai Heiwa spread and how the members remained hidden. A single member of Sekai Heiwa would simply join any group and slowly change the conversation. The surface meaning would be innocent and the same as before. But the hidden meaning was now planted and talking about something very different.
Whenever anyone then spoke to their other friends, they also passed on the hidden message, knowingly or not.
Tamaki, having stuck with me at the Academy all those years, not only realized there was doubletalk, but also decoded the hidden message.
She realized the real conversation was actually an interrogation. A member somewhere was trying to see if Tamaki could be converted over.
"They wanted me to spy on Ayae," Tamaki said, suddenly looking very tired. "I played dumb and intentionally failed their test, and they left me alone after that." She closed her eyes. "Sorry I didn't tell everyone earlier."
I lowered my shoulders.
So it was either Takahashi all along or the mysterious Sekai Heiwa. I wasn't sure which was worse.
If a secret club was indeed after me, what could I do?
How could I talk to them, if I didn't even know who they were?
I arrived at the police station with lots of questions spinning in my mind.
I hoped Shisui would be able to help.
He wasn't there. There was a sticky note on the desk telling me he had left for a mission. In the meantime, he wanted all the paperwork done. He drew a smiley with its tongue out.
I deflated. As I sat down to begin work, the back door opened.
It was Uncle Tekka, one of my nicer uncles. He mostly kept to himself. I knew from conversations with Aunt Uruchi that he and his fiancée finally got married last winter. They had been engaged for a long time, but his fiancée wasn't supposed to leave her clan for ours until she came of the right age.
My dad and I never got invited to the wedding, so we only had stories, but apparently his fiancée had tripped on her kimono and nearly set the whole temple on fire. Aunt Uruchi had laughed and said our clan did go excessive on the candles, especially on celebrations. Our clan really liked lots of light when happy.
Uncle Tekka didn't mind my presence. He worked at his own desk with a mug of hot tea.
After an hour or so of silence, I heard, "Hey."
I looked up. Uncle Tekka had a stack of files for me.
"Sort these there?"
Nodding, I accepted the stack. As I slotted the files into the right bins, the front door opened. Someone dropped by to hand in a report. I had my back turned, so I never got to see who it was.
But the report had to be important because Uncle Tekka put down his tea.
"Do you know about this?"
I turned around to see him holding up the report.
Curious, I went to take a look.
My heart stopped when I saw Mimi's name. It was a hospital report.
I knew the hospital filed reports sometimes. They too had rules to follow. All the reports I had seen so far were for shinobi patients. I never thought Mimi would end up in one.
In the end, I told Uncle Tekka about the exploded summoning scroll.
"Hold on," he said. "There are summoning scrolls in the civilian school?"
I explained that too.
He had no words except "ah". He nodded, which meant he understood now. He let me go back to slotting files while he stapled slips of paper on the report and dropped it in one of the piles. He moved on to his other cases.
Uncle Tekka appreciated my help. He offered me tea as a reward. He had several good packets and warned me to never tell Shisui he had them. He said Shisui was a nasty tea snatcher.
Uncle Tekka was confused when I confessed I didn't like tea. He looked at me like I was the weirdest creature.
He tried again. He offered me one of his wife's buttered pastries instead. Now that, I eagerly accepted.
He was glad. He didn't like sweet things, but his wife made very sweet dishes. Her pastries were especially too sweet for him.
As I bit into the pastry, I could understand what he meant. It was indeed very sweet! I happily munched down.
"If you don't like it, you should tell her," I said, ready for another bite.
"It's not good to be rude to someone you now live with," he said, lightly chuckling.
Uncle Tekka was opening up, enough to make jokes.
"You don't have to tell the truth rudely. She worked so hard to make you meals. Of course she'd want you to enjoy them. You can help her help you. And she can help you help her."
Done, I licked my thumb. My eyes fell to the remaining pastries.
I burst into thanks when Uncle Tekka gave me another one.
We worked in happy silence afterward, enjoying each other's company.
Before the night was over, I remembered Dai's idea and asked Uncle Tekka about any detective guides.
Uncle Tekka said the police did have procedures for solving cases but it wasn't written down. Instead, the knowledge was passed down through experience. He said Shisui would teach me over time, just like how Uncle Yashiro taught Shisui.
It wasn't just police guides. The Uchiha clan had been writing down less and less things for the past fifty years. Things we discovered. Things we learned.
"Why is that?" I asked.
"We don't have time."
Between missions and police duty, our clan barely had time to enjoy dinner much less do anything else.
In his grandparents generation, it had been the women who did the writing. They tracked money and kept records. In times of peace, they also did music and art. And they hosted some of the best tea ceremonies in the world.
Uncle Tekka smiled fondly at his mug. He had only heard stories of his grandmother's tea. Sadly there was no one left to make it.
All the women in our clan now were too busy fighting. We needed all talent out in the field. Could you imagine Lady Tomoe dropping her missions to brew tea?
I swallowed at his expression.
I thought back to my clan lady lessons at the temple. The calligraphy and tea and flowers. I wondered if that was why Itachi learned them when he was younger. Because there hadn't been enough people to learn them. Because if he didn't learn them, the knowledge might be lost forever.
But that wouldn't happen anymore. He passed it on to me.
Tomoe was too busy. But maybe I...
I noticed the time. I waved goodbye to Uncle Tekka. It was important that he went home and enjoyed dinner. It was important that I went back home to my dad too.
At home, my dad was waiting with peanut butter chicken and rice. I had been updating him on the summoning scroll situation. My dad had been the one who gave me the advice to postpone exams, which had helped take pressure off everyone.
Hearing my latest news, he thought hard. He suggested holding another meeting with all the students. It had been a while since my last announcement, and I should follow up. It was good to be open and honest.
He also had an idea.
I followed my dad's advice.
The next day, I called for an assembly. All the students crowded in the room. I waited on stage with my friends. The principle and other teachers stood behind us. Takahashi was there too, glaring spitefully at me. I looked away.
Unlike at the Academy, there were no orderly lines or rows. Everyone just clustered and were nice to make room. To my surprise, the bad girl crew came too. They were gathered by the door, Ise and her friend leaning against the wall.
Once everyone was settled, I began.
"Morning. Thank you for coming. The student council wants to give an update on the recent summoning scroll incident."
Everyone waited. I looked down at the notes that Tamaki had written for me. My heart pounded. I could feel Takahashi's gaze on my back.
"After looking into the problem, we believe that the incident is unique, and that summoning scrolls are very likely safe. We do not know everything yet and are still investigating why the explosion happened. So we ask that everyone please continue to be careful when using them."
I flipped the page.
"We understand if anyone does not feel comfortable using them anymore. If so, you may take out your belongings and return the scroll to us for storage. You can ask for your scroll back at any time.
"We are also happy to double check any scrolls, if you would like yours checked for problems. Just find us after school hours in the council club room on the third floor."
I looked up.
"Does anyone have any questions?"
Someone raised their hand. "What about exams?"
I exchanged a look with Tamaki. She nodded.
"Exams will start this week, as promised. But we've spoken with the teachers, and we are also allowing all students a choice. You can take it this week, or you can take it next week. Either is okay. But the teachers encourage you to take it this week if you can, in case for some reason you miss next week."
There were excited murmurs.
I asked if anyone had anything else to say. But that was it. Everyone only cared about exams.
I exhaled, relieved.
"If there are no other questions, then I would like to announce one last thing."
Dai and Setsu carried a box onto the stage. The box had been my dad's idea.
My dad agreed with me that I should listen to Sekai Heiwa, especially if I thought they might be behind the explosion. But for that to happen, I needed a way for them to talk.
"From now on, if anyone at any time has anything they would like to say to me, you may leave a message in the box," I said, showing the slit at the top. "You don't have to write your name or hand it in yourself. I promise to read every message and do my best to help if anyone has concerns.
"As student representative, I want to make the school good for everyone. Thank you for your time!"
With that, I bowed.
Done, I was ready to leave the stage.
To my surprise, there were adults coming in, pushing through the crowd. They didn't belong to the school.
I recognized them.
They were my uncles. They were in uniform.
One of them was Uncle Tekka.
Up front was Uncle Yashiro. He pushed me aside, taking the stage center. The students whispered loudly, as confused as I was.
"Listen up!"
Everyone immediately went silent. All the teachers stiffened. The principal hid behind me, looking ready to melt into the ground.
"The police have been notified of unauthorized use of military weapon in this building."
I jumped in. "Wait, if this is about the summoning scrolls, I—"
"We don't care about that," Uncle Yashiro scowled. "We're talking about grade three explosive powder residue found on the body of a civilian girl."
I froze.
Mimi.
Setsu had also thought the explosion was not caused by the scroll, but by explosive powder.
But we had been caught up in trying to understand who did it and why. All of us having been Academy students, we completely forgot that…
Civilians cannot get explosive powder.
Explosive powder was both military and aggressive. It was illegal for anyone who was not a ninja or ninja-in-training to have it.
Uncle Inabi folded his arms. "Konoha has eighty-five kilograms of unaccounted explosive powder. The shipment went missing two months ago, and we've been tracking it ever since. If the culprit does not step up now, I guarantee drastic measures will be taken."
I choked.
Eighty-five… kilograms?
No one spoke.
No one dared move, everyone stiff.
Uncle Inabi grew impatient.
"It's over. You know you're guilty. Don't make this more difficult on everyone and step up."
Eyes wide, I looked around the room. We all waited.
Some looked away. Some shrunk.
Again, no one spoke up.
"Tch. Fine, have it your way." Uncle Inabi glanced at the principal and teachers. "From this day forth, this school is shut down."
Both Takahashi and I stepped up at the same time, mouths open.
"We'll be collecting the wristbands of all students and faculty," Uncle Inabi continued. "Don't bother running," he sneered, already seeing some of the delinquents try to bolt for the door. "We already have a list of everyone's names. Our forces will be conducting a manual search of every residence. Non-compliance will result in another strike for both you and your families."
"Wait, no—!" I began.
"Stop, I'll tell—!" Takahashi began.
"It's me."
Everyone turned to the back of the room.
Ise froze. All the other bad girls froze too, halfway out the door. No matter how Ise pulled her friend's wrist, he did not move.
He didn't move even when she started yelling and pulling harder.
He barely glanced up when Uncle Yashiro flashed in front of him.
"Cut the crap, Shao! This isn't funny, you hear, this isn't—"
"You confess?" Uncle Yashiro asked.
The bad boy, Shao, didn't blink.
"You didn't leave me a choice."
He pushed Ise away. Too startled, she fell onto the floor.
The police took Shao and flickered out.
Ise hadn't the time to react, her arm barely raised. She stared at the empty space in disbelief. Her arm lowered.
In her palm was his yo-yo. When she noticed it, she clutched it hard. She bowed her head and screamed.
She screamed as if someone had just taken a sword and cut her in half.
.
The door to the club room nearly fell off its hinges.
Ise pushed Takahashi out of the way. Her makeup had blurred, her teeth clenched.
"Bring him back!"
Eyes wide, I held up Mimi's scroll on reflex. Her knife stabbed into it, missing my face by a centimeter.
"Ise!" Takahashi yelled. "Control yourself!"
Ise didn't hear him.
"If I'm not happy, I come tell you," she said, laughing madly. "Was that not what you said? Well then, I'm here to tell you! Uchiha girl, you bring him back. You bring him back, or you and your friends are never seeing daylight again!"
"Is that a threat?" Tamaki demanded.
"It's a promise." Ise yanked out her knife.
Before the bad girls could leave, Takahashi spoke up.
"Is it truly him? Is he guilty?" He needed to know.
Ise flinched. She said nothing.
Then:
"If he's guilty, then be terrified…" She clutched her knife harder. "... of what that makes the rest of us."
.
Shao's guilt was confirmed very fast. My clan busted into Shao's residence. They found a plastic bag with explosive powder inside. He had a lot of other suspicious stuff in his room too, including military grade foil and wire.
They then made Shao tell them where he hid the rest of the explosive powder. From my uncle's bad moods, I guessed the answer was not what they had hoped.
I knew Ise wanted me to free Shao, but I didn't know what I could do. Shao himself had confessed, and the evidence was all there. He had broken the law, and a very serious law at that. He was truly in awful trouble.
While my uncles kept Shao in interrogation, there was no way for me to talk to him. I was just a desk apprentice. For my own safety, Shisui never gave me a key to the back rooms. I couldn't even go into some of the confidential filing rooms, much less the actual jail cells and interrogation chambers.
Eighty-five kilograms of explosive powder…
It was enough for an entire battalion. It was enough to blow up entire buildings and districts.
I couldn't understand. I was more confused than I was at the beginning. Why Mimi got hurt became only one question out of hundreds.
But I couldn't talk to Mimi.
And I couldn't talk to Shao.
Neither could tell me what was happening or why. And everyone who could talk to me didn't know.
Ise didn't react well when I told her what the police found. She was unstable, and the news wasn't what she wanted to hear. She didn't want to hear anything that wasn't Shao getting released. She didn't want to see any face but his.
The other bad girls had to restrain her.
"I'm trying, I'm trying, but I need to know what's going on!" I cried, getting frustrated too. "No one is telling me what's going on! If the police made a mistake, then tell me where! If he's innocent…"
"He's innocent!" Ise howled.
"Then help me prove it! You have to help me help you!"
One of the bad girls, Murasaki, approached me afterward. Murasaki was Ise's closest friend after Shao. Murasaki couldn't watch Ise like this. She said she'd help me.
At my request, she showed me where Shao lived.
He was in one of the dense areas near downtown. All the doors and windows were super skinny, the buildings so close that the balconies between them almost touched. Lots of adults lounged outside, playing cards or having a smoke.
Ascending the narrow stairs, I expected a tiny apartment like Gin's. I realized I didn't know what to say to Shao's parents.
To my surprise, it was not an apartment I stumbled into.
It was a dormitory.
The first room was some sort of common space where crowds of people moved about. The air was heavy with steam and smoke from the kitchen, which looked like it belonged in the back of a restaurant, with rows of cabinets and entire jars of chopsticks.
Following Murasaki, she took me down a tight hallway with many doors on both sides. Peering into some of the open doors, I saw they were all bedrooms, with bunks stacked two to three levels. Some rooms had entire families inside, with a grandpa or a grandma on top and small kids playing on the lower bunks.
Shao had his own room at the end of a corner, just before another set of stairs. There were already little kids inside, who jumped in fright as soon as they saw Murasaki.
"Leave it," Murasaki commanded.
One of the kids froze at the door. Quietly, she dropped the thing she had taken, before rushing out with the others.
I picked it up, curious.
It was a dragonfly weaved from dry grass. It was on a piece of braided wire. I noticed there were other skewers of grass creations by the window.
Like the other rooms, Shao's room was not much bigger than a closet. But it felt less suffocating, because there was only one set of bunk beds instead of two. The space was also clean. There wasn't much stuff.
The bottom bunk had no mattress, just a wooden board covering. It looked like a workshop space with a single lamp, spools of string, and colorful paper. Anything else must have been confiscated by the police.
Besides the bunk, there was only a sink. The sink was the only place with clutter. There was a curling iron and scattered makeup. I picked up a pen and popped open the cap. It was eyeliner, I realized.
"Does Ise also live here?" I asked, noticing the white shirt folded over the top bunk.
Murasaki crossed her arms, leaning by the door. "Ise lives on the opposite side of the district."
Murasaki explained that Ise didn't like her home. Her dad was a shinobi. He had anger problems and an ugly side. So Ise stayed with Shao often.
"Where are Shao's parents? Are they in a different room?" I asked.
Shao had no parents.
He was raised by his grandmother. The two of them lived here, until she passed away. Then he lived here alone.
Murasaki lifted the wooden board from the bottom bunk. Below the board were compartments of stuff. Everything looked like it had been tossed when the police went through it, and someone then tried to clumsily stuff everything back in place.
There wasn't much. I noticed some old clothes in plastic wrap and a pair of slippers. There were lots of newspapers and scrap paper. A toothbrush kit. Old plastic cups. Dried herb packets and tiny jars that looked like it could be ointment.
I could not help but keep looking at the slippers. They were normal bedroom slippers, the cheap fuzzy kind that would get dirty easily and be thrown out after a year. But these, while old and worn, were well kept.
They were adult slippers.
"Is there anything else?" I whispered.
The bathroom was shared; you brought your own shampoo and soap to the showers.
That left the kitchen. Every family had a small section of shelf and fridge space that was theirs. Shao's section was, once again, very neat. He only had a few cabbages and sprouts.
"What do you think you're doing?" Murasaki demanded, seeing a woman take one of the cabbages for herself.
"They're about to spoil," the woman growled back. "You want it?"
When Murasaki said nothing, the woman closed the fridge. "Someone cooks it today, or someone throws it out tomorrow."
Shao's part of the pantry had a bag of rice, a bag of beans, a bottle of oil, and a jar of tofu.
I learned Shao ate simple meals. He was a vegetarian, which meant he did not eat meat, not even fish.
I had a hard time understanding this. Aunt Asa had tried vegetables only, but she tried all sorts of weird diets. It was very gross, and after a while even Aunt Asa gave up.
"Does he not have enough money?" I asked. I knew from grocery shopping that meat was much more expensive than vegetables and rice. If he did not have parents, he might not have the money for it.
"No, that's not it."
I waited.
Murasaki closed her eyes, as if trying to think of the best way to tell me without sounding too crazy.
"Ise's boyfriend can't… kill things."
"Can't kill things?" I echoed.
But Murasaki didn't need to explain more. I was beginning to understand.
When we got back to his room, the kids were there again. This time, some had nested on the top bunk.
Murasaki had to once again shoo them out.
"Is Brother Shaochin coming back?" the kid from before asked, the one who had tried to steal the dragonfly. She did not look older than five or six years old.
"Ask her," Murasaki said, glancing at me.
The kid looked at me.
"Yeah, of course," I said, smiling.
She smiled back.
"I knew the adults lying," she said, very pleased with herself. She ran out to join the others.
I noticed the dragonfly from the window was gone.
"So Shao can't kill anything," I whispered, staring at the grass-woven crickets and mantises and butterflies, the tiny antennas almost see-through in the light.
"No," Murasaki confirmed.
Because Shao was important to Ise, the bad girls let him in their circle. The bad girls protected him like one of their own. But Shao was not like them. He did not fight, not even in self-defense. He was as mild as the spring breeze, as gentle as the summer rain.
Ise knew him better than her right hand. She didn't care about police reports or evidence.
Shao couldn't harm anyone.
He was innocent.
.
Uncle Tekka caught me waiting for him at the police station.
He sighed but did not brush me away like my other uncles. He stacked his folders, listening as I blurted out everything I found out.
"He's a vegetarian!" I exclaimed. "Did you know that?"
Uncle Tekka paused. "No, we didn't."
I tip-toed. "So he's innocent!"
Somewhere nearby, Uncle Inabi snorted.
Uncle Tekka was more patient. With Shisui away, he was the youngest. So he felt the most responsible for me.
"And what's your evidence?" Uncle Tekka asked.
I blinked. I thought I just said it.
"He's a vegetarian."
Shao's innocence seemed very obvious to me. If he couldn't even eat a chicken, no way he could harm people. No way he could blow up Mimi!
Uncle Tekka gave a small huff, shaking his head.
That wasn't evidence, he explained.
I was small and naive. I hadn't travelled and seen what they had seen.
People weren't so clear-cut and logical. There were people who worshipped pigs yet sacrificed children. There were people who protected trees yet burned villages. If anything, strange eating habits was more proof that someone was not right in the head.
Real evidence was the sixty grams of explosive powder they found in Shao's room, the same quality of powder missing from shipment, the same quality of powder found on Mimi's body.
Real evidence was Shao's confession, detailing when he committed the crime, where he committed the crime, both in the exact time window and place the police suspected the explosive powder went missing.
There was a reason our clan was the police.
Not even elite shinobi could resist the Sharingan, much less a civilian boy.
Even if Shao wanted to, it was impossible for him to lie.
He was guilty. He said it himself.
The case was closed.
I couldn't say anything.
As student representative, I wanted to protect all the students. I wanted to make Ise happy. But… I didn't think I could protect Shao. And I didn't think I would be able to make Ise happy.
"What's his punishment?" I finally asked.
Maybe it wouldn't be too bad. Maybe I could convince my uncles to lower his community service time. Sewer duty would suck, but maybe we could work something out.
"No idea," Uncle Tekka said. "That's up to the correctional facility."
"Correctional facility?"
I learned that our clan didn't decide punishment. We only caught criminals and solved cases. Afterward we sent them to the correctional facilities, which then sorted everyone into the right place based on the person and the crime.
The correctional facilities weren't in Konoha.
"Not in… Konoha?" I echoed.
Suddenly, I heard the little girl's voice in my head. I heard Ise's scream and all the silence around her. My stomach knotted.
"But I… I didn't go to any facility," I said softly.
I learned that despite what I thought, my record was clean. My worst offense was defying Itachi's order, which he fully forgave. Even if I had gotten written up for some of my naughty behaviors, they wouldn't have been more than minor misdemeanors.
Stealing eighty-five kilograms of explosive powder was not a minor misdemeanor.
That was a felony.
Felons had no place in Konoha.
