Chapter 5: But the Cats Don't Play Along

Byakuya regarded him with a disapproving look, while the yakuza just stood frozen in the doorway.

"Is there something you want?" he finally asked when Fuyuhiko still made no move.

The yakuza wrenched his eyes away from Nagito to frown at him. "The fuck is going on here?"

"There was an attack," Byakuya replied brusquely.

"Yeah, so I've heard. But what the hell happened exactly?" Fuyuhiko nodded in Nagito's direction. "Is he dead?"

Byakuya couldn't blame him for thinking that. From his angle, he would barely be able to see more than Peko with the bloody sheet. Nagito himself would mostly be hidden behind the table. "No," he replied just as shortly.

He was still wondering why Fuyuhiko was even here in the first place. What was he trying to accomplish? He always proclaimed not to care about them before and he didn't seem to be the type to gossip either, so even if he did hear about the attack, what had prompted him to come? Moreover, he just kept asking questions and Byakuya couldn't figure out why.

"Which one of you bastards did it?"

"Teruteru." There was no real point in keeping that from him. Even if he didn't say it, Fuyuhiko would hear it from someone else soon enough. "Look, is there any point to your questions?"

"Huh?" Fuyuhiko seemed taken aback for a moment, then he put his hands in his pockets and leaned against the doorframe with a superior grin on his face. "I just wanted to check how you could screw up so badly on such a simple task. I mean, for someone so insistent on wanting to protect everyone, you did a pretty shitty job of it, don't you think? You couldn't even get past the third day without someone almost dying. Are you sure you're even fit to be a leader? Perhaps you should leave that task to someone who actually knows what they're doing."

At those words, a scowl etched itself deeply into Byakuya's face. "I did protect everyone, just as I promised," he said in a low voice. "Nobody died this night. And nobody will die in the future, as long as I have anything to say about it."

"Yeah, right. Forgive me if I don't want to put my life in your hands. If those idiots want to go along with whatever you say, that's their problem. I think this evening proves your competence well enough."

"And of course, I assume you would be much better suited for the job," Byakuya said, sarcasm heavy on his tongue.

Fuyuhiko rolled his eyes. "Sure am, but why would I agree to do this? I don't care about any of you. I'm fine on my own."

A smirk settled on Byakuya's lips. "I guess your title is just for show, then."

"The fuck did you just say?" Fuyuhiko's anger was easily sparked. He clenched his fists and took a few threatening steps into the room. "I'm a yakuza, not a fucking babysitter! If you want to kill each other, go ahead. I don't care! Why would I waste my time trying to stop you?"

His smirk grew wider. Fuyuhiko took the bait. It was almost too easy. "That's what I'm wondering. Why would you waste your time even coming here, if you don't care?"

Fuyuhiko was visibly taken off guard by this question. He frowned and opened his mouth, trying to think of an answer. However, what came out was just a, "Fuck you, I don't have to tell you anything."

It was clear that the yakuza himself knew what a weak answer that was. Why did he come here though, Byakuya still wondered. The way he saw it, there was only one possible explanation. To find out who to watch out for. If he was trying to win the game, Byakuya would have probably done something similar, even if he wouldn't have gone about it in such an amateurish way.

He would want to know who was bold enough to attempt a murder right under everyone's noses. And he would also want to scope out the competence of the group's leader. How he handled the situation and what he did to neutralize the threat. All so he would know what to go up against when the time came to make a move. He would know. He had done something similar in his first killing game.

"So, this is where you ran off to," a voice from behind Fuyuhiko cut through the tense silence.

The yakuza turned around from their staring contest, scowling at the arriving Kazuichi and Mahiru. "Got a problem with me being here?"

"Uh, no. Of course not," Kazuichi quickly backpedaled.

Fuyuhiko snorted. "Didn't think so. Well, you bastards can sort this out on your own, it's none of my business."

"Indeed, it isn't," Byakuya said.

Fuyuhiko answered by stalking out of the room, intentionally bumping into Kazuichi in the process and leaving down the hallway, but not without slamming the door behind himself.

"Geez, what an asshole," Kazuichi mumbled, rubbing his shoulder. "What on earth is his deal?"

"Does it really matter? If he wants to be a stubborn idiot, just leave him be. More importantly," Mahiru turned to Byakuya, "we found Teruteru."

"Where?" he asked sharply.

"In his cottage. He wasn't exactly hard to find. We told him to open the door, but he didn't react at all."

"Not that I can blame him," Kazuichi threw in, scratching the back of his neck. "If Akane stood in front of my door, yelling bloody murder about how she was going to beat me up, I wouldn't open the door either…"

"Well, yeah, she was kind of scary," Mahiru admitted. "If Monomi hadn't shown up to stop her, she probably would have broken down the lock."

"Did he say anything?" Byakuya said. He was slowly growing impatient with how much they went off topic.

Kazuichi answered this time. "Not really. We just heard a lot of sobbing and, okay, he did say some things, but it was too quiet. We couldn't understand a word."

Well, if Teruteru was in his cottage, he couldn't do any more damage. That was something. "Alright. You two go back and make sure that Teruteru doesn't leave his cottage. And for god's sake, tell Akane to calm down. We don't need her accidentally beating him to death. Just guarding the door will be enough."

"Okay." Mahiru nodded her head and turned around. "Come on!" she called out to Kazuichi.

"Yeah, yeah, you don't need to command me around." Despite his words, the mechanic quickly caught up to her. However, just as they were about to leave the room, they were nearly hit in the face by the door as it was slammed open with a loud bang.

"AAAAHHHH!" Kazuichi jumped. Literally. In his split-second of panic as he saw the threatening figure in front of him, he almost fell over when he scrambled backwards. His reaction was partly justified.

Gundham stood in the doorway, both hands still outstretched in front of him from pushing the door. His coat seemed to flutter in the wind, even though they were indoors. There was a dark glint in his eyes as they swept over the people in the room. Nobody would have been surprised if his dramatic entrance had been accompanied by lightning and thunder.

Upon seeing Kazuichi's antics, he immediately focused on the mechanic. "Was that a confession?! Speak now, or I shall know no mercy!" he hollered.

With tears in the corners of his eyes, Kazuichi clutched his chest. "Dammit, you nearly gave me a heart attack! You could at least apologize!"

Gundham narrowed his eyes. "Hmph. Even now you refuse to admit to your sins, although you reek of guilt? Very well. You leave me no choice. I shall extract the truth with force, even if that means sending you to the fires of Pandaemonium!" He struck a pose, raising one hand in front of his face with his index and middle finger up in the air.

Kazuichi took a step back. "H-hold on a second! I don't even know what you're talking about!"

"That's what I'd like to know as well," Byakuya said, interrupting this newest display of stupidity. He slowly felt a headache approaching. Scratch the previous thought about eccentrics. They were all completely insane. Every single one of them. "What is the meaning of this? Why did you come here alone? I explicitly told you to go in pairs, did I not?"

Still glowering at Kazuichi, Gundham replied, "The path I walk is one no mortal can follow."

"That's neither a reason nor an explanation! Why did you come here alone?"

With a swiping motion that seemed to cut the very air in front of him, Gundham pointed dramatically at Kazuichi. "He must have deployed a plot most heinous to steal the Hellhound Earring!" He took a menacing step towards the mechanic, who instinctively flinched back. "Do you not know, fool, that an artifact with an enchantment as intricate as this obeys no one but its rightful owner?"

"What the hell, man? Why would I steal some earring?"

Gundham chuckled mirthlessly. "You must have realized the amount of power it grants the wearer, without being aware of the restrictions. Now, return it at once or do I need to pry it from your cold, dead hands?"

"You're completely nuts!" Kazuichi exclaimed and for once, Byakuya was inclined to agree with him. The mechanic inched away from Gundham in growing fear. "I didn't take your damn earring!"

"And even if he did, I would not allow you to kill him. Especially for such a petty reason," Byakuya stepped in. He knew that, if he let this play out on its own, they wouldn't get anywhere.

"If you are not the thief, tell me who is!"

"How the hell should I know?!"

"Are you even sure that it was stolen? Maybe you just lost it somewhere," Mahiru butted in. "Do you remember where you last had it?"

Grudgingly, Gundham tore his eyes away from Kazuichi to look at her. His hand reached up to his scarf, only to notice that he wasn't wearing it, so he just ended up righting his collar. "I noticed that I couldn't feel its presence just now, at Teruteru's lair. It could not have been missing for too long, or its aura would have diminished sooner."

"That doesn't really explain how you know but let's say you probably still had it at the party. You must have lost it during the blackout or the investigation," Mahiru concluded.

"That is a possibility," Gundham admitted slowly. "In that case, I shall retrace the footsteps I left in the sands of time, starting at the birthplace of tragedy."

That apparently referred to the dining hall. With purposeful strides, Gundham went around the room, eyes fixed on the ground like a hawk. Sonia and Mahiru also looked around themselves.

Hajime returned at that moment and looked at the small assembly of people curiously. He must have gotten to the supermarket without any further incident, Byakuya noted in satisfaction. As soon as Mikan saw him, she ran over to him. In her haste, her foot got caught on a fold in the carpet and she fell forward.

With twin cries of surprise, Hajime and Mikan both went down. The nurse shook her head, and when she finally noticed that she was kneeling over Hajime, she shot up with a string of apologies.

"It's fine, really," Hajime tried to reassure her with a red face. "It was an accident; don't worry about it."

Mikan seemed even more distressed by his reassurances, but then she remembered her duty, picked up the first-aid kit and returned to Nagito's side, at a slower pace this time. Byakuya didn't pay much attention to them at this point, since he had to step in when Gundham insisted they look beneath Nagito, to assure him that the chances of him lying on an earring were extremely slim.

As Mikan started working on Nagito's treatment, Hajime shuffled up to him and asked, "So, what's going on here?"

Byakuya pinched the bridge of his nose. "It appears we are missing an earring."

"It is not just any old earring!" Gundham protested immediately. "It is the Hellhound Earring!"

"Yes, so we've heard," Mahiru said. "Anyway, we're helping Gundham find it before he drives us all nuts over it."

"Saying that like you aren't already," muttered Byakuya to himself. It was probably a good thing that nobody heard him over Gundham saying, "But it seems to have vanished completely!"

"Well, did you stay on the carpet the whole time? If not, it might have fallen through the floorboards," Hajime said.

Gundham perked up with a grin stretching from ear to ear. "The floorboards, of course! If that's where I can find it, I only need to follow the path the sinner has trodden in order to retrieve it!"

Before Byakuya could stop him, Gundham had already turned on his heel and hurried out of the room. Presumably to the storage room. Where the iron skewer was hidden. What a pain.

"Didn't I tell you repeatedly to stay in pairs?!" Byakuya called after him. The sound of fading footsteps was his only answer.

"In that case, I shall accompany him!" Sonia declared. She was already going after him without further prompt.

Byakuya would have preferred it if she had waited for his approval, which he would have given, but the situation had resolved itself in a satisfying manner anyway. Or so he thought. He hadn't accounted for Kazuichi.

"Miss Sonia!" he cried out, looking torn. "You can't go alone with him! It's too dangerous!"

"Did you already forget about your task? You were supposed to return to the cottages! What are you even still doing here?" Byakuya asked him, when he took a tentative step towards the door.

Kazuichi shook his head. "I can't just do nothing if Miss Sonia is in danger!"

"Are you not listening? You are not supposed to do nothing!"

He definitely wasn't listening. With a resolution born from infatuation or idiocy or both, he tore after the two.

"Come back here this instant!" Byakuya commanded, but to no avail. He was already gone a moment later. Byakuya frowned deeply. They couldn't afford for everyone to leave for the storage room on a wild goose chase for an earring.

"Geez, why do boys always have to be so irresponsible?"

"Excuse me?" Byakuya shot Mahiru a deadpan look.

"Well, what else would you call this behavior?" she asked him, seemingly not even realizing that she was including him in her generalization. "Should I go back alone?"

"No," he said immediately. "I don't want any one of you to go alone."

"Uhm, I don't know exactly what's going on, but if you just need someone to accompany her to the cottages, I could go with her," Hajime suggested.

Byakuya paused and blinked in surprise. He had half forgotten that Hajime was even there. But that would solve the problem at hand. He nodded. "That would be appreciated. Mahiru, you can fill him in on what happened on the way."

"Right. Let's go, then," she said, leaving with Hajime in tow.

Byakuya watched them go, deep in thought. Hajime was a weird one. If he really didn't remember his talent—like Kyoko hadn't—and he was genuinely trying to be helpful, he could be a true asset. But there was also the possibility that he just jumped at the chance to help in order to gain his trust. He hoped it was the former, but his unknown origins were a cause for concern. For now, he was quickly rising in Byakuya's favor, but that didn't mean he was free of suspicion.

Well, only time would tell. He would have to wait and see how things developed with him. For now, he would need to get his arm stitched together, then he could take care of the rest. Starting with Teruteru.