Chapter 4
It was a hectic week but the school still resumed on Monday with safety protocols implemented within. Akko and Sucy walked to school together that morning due to Akko's insistence.
"These are scary times, Sucy." Akko grabbed her hand. "You'd never know. Better to be prepared. We should stick together!"
Sucy's eyebrow rose, attempting to show a genuine reaction to her best friend's corny lines. Still not sure if she should don a smirk, a laugh or a stoic face. In the end, she decided against all of that.
"Don't worry," she clasped her hand. "Even if there is a murderer roaming around, I'll protect you. I won't let anyone hurt you. It's the least I could do."
Sucy was conflicted. She wasn't sure if nausea forming in her guts was because of the fact she just killed four more boys or that Akko was showing her affection.
"Aww, don't mention it, Sucy! You are my friend because I want to! But there's something bothering me about Thomas' death."
Her hands were turning clammy, and her knuckles turned white. She had to swallow the impending guilt, hoping it wouldn't rise again. "Oh? Hadn't they learned who killed him?"
"I heard that the killer is still unidentified and the murder weapon can't be found," Akko whispered. "It's a mystery, the forensics and doctors are now examining his body to find anything."
"Enough about him," Sucy said, wanting to hear no more of it. "Even in death he still irks me. What about you, Akko? Any luck on your magic tricks?"
Akko managed to persuade her parents to follow her dreams in becoming a great magician after she watched one of Shiny Chariot's worldwide tour shows.
Akko grinned proudly, her usual high energy coming back. "Why yes! Finally, I learned how to bend a spoon!"
Out of nowhere she conjured a spoon from her school uniform and held it in a way that gives the illusion of the utensil bending as she slid her hand along the handle, which took a lot of practice.
"Ta-dah!" Akko threw a little confetti up into the air, some of which got stuck in Sucy's head.
"You're still an idiot," Sucy said like she was dead from the inside.
"Well sorry, but it took me years to finally master that!" Akko said tersely, huffing as she walked faster.
"Hey, Akko!" Sucy called after her. "What happened to sticking together?"
"I couldn't believe the rest of Thomas' squad killed themselves," Akko said, carrying a tray full of different potato dishes. Her face scrunched up, apparent for her dislike in the lack of creativity in the dishes served in the predominantly English cuisine.
Morning classes went by fast for a maladaptive daydreamer duo and are currently having lunch at the school's cafeteria.
"Yeah," Sucy deadpanned. "I couldn't believe you would have the appetite to talk about dead people as we eat."
"Well, sorry for that but it's a hot topic right now," Akko said, looking at all the hushed conversations in every corner of the room.
The school was busy for a week after Sergeant Kinsley stopped harassing the students and faculty for his misplaced anger and priorities of his incorrect disciplinary actions when he brought up his kid. But the news that Wangari published threw it off of balance.
Sucy enjoyed the fact that Wangari acted like how she thought she would. It was a common knowledge that Wangari would do everything and anything to become a famous reporter and if it means getting to a story fast and delivering it to the masses, she would. Often times with a dramatic flair to reel in readers and gossipers.
"I just couldn't believe that they will all overdose themselves with heroin!" Akko said, being animated her arm movements. "What does that even mean?"
Sucy was slurping some mushroom juice until the juice box popped. She took a deep breath before saying. "Maybe it's like what Wangari said in her article. Maybe they got guilty of killing Thomas."
"But Sucy!" Akko stared at her with serious eyes. "I was with Thomas a few moments before his death. I would know if his cahoots would be in the same room with him."
"Akko, I care for you but sometimes you're an idiot. I suggest they have a modus operandi of their own to make sure they can kill him with you counting their alibis."
Sucy and Akko were met with a loud thud of books on their table. "Why hello there girls," the fumbling Professor fixed her glasses back to the bridge of her nose.
"Cha—I mean... Professor Ursula!" Akko almost slipped the secret identity of her idol.
Sucy noticed that after all these years, Akko was still a fangirl of Shiny Chariot, even managing to find her even when Chariot left the stage and assumed another identity. Reasons were left vague to Sucy but all she knew was that Professor Ursula had a long talk with Akko's parents in Japan. There was an agreement between them that Chariot would mentor Akko with magic tricks and take care of her so the legal guardianship was handled properly until Akko was 18. Yet still, the older woman served more as an older sister.
"Do the older professors still give you their jobs?" Sucy said, curtly.
Professor Ursula awkwardly laughed the stress her older co-workers are pushing onto her. "Nothing I can't easily do!"
It was supposed to be a relatively easy day for Sucy, when things go according to plan. Yet the moment the cafeteria doors burst wide open, and a thunder of footsteps from the Sergeant and a few Constables on his side stormed in, looking for a particular person and deriving an intimidating aura.
The Sergeant was identifiable at a glance. His uniform and the fact that he had the same sand color hair as Thomas was an indisputable resemblance. Thomas' father gave a contemptuous look their way and rested on Akko before making their way.
"Are you Atsuko Kagari?" his brazen mouth managed to instill fear in those who aren't even on the wrong side of the law.
"Y-yes?" Akko yelped.
The Sergeant showed his police badge. "I need you to come with me."
As if on cue the Constables beside him both grabbed Akko on the arm as if she was some sort of branded criminal. Sucy sat there, her mouth agape.
"W-wait," Akko said, squeamish, staring back and forth to the faces of authority. "Where are you taking me?"
"We will just ask some questions." The tall man said a passive tone, "For an interrogation."
"W-wait!" Professor Ursula who had been quiet for a while finally spoke her mind. "You can't take her like that! She's a foreign exchange student! Also a minor, you can't just take her and treat her like an adult! There are procedures to do this lawfully!"
Sucy stood, dawning on the fact that she made a mistake. She managed to remove all suspicions from her but she gave Akko a motive through the outsiders' eyes. All the victims so far were the people who bullied who her best friend—Akko.
Then she glared up at Thomas' father so tall, so stern, and so forbidding.
"Now I think you are regretting you haven't killed him this morning." Loa chuckled mockingly.
Sucy smiled, knowing she had the upper hand in the situation, but the rising anger inside her didn't help the snarl from forming on her lips. Her fingers were suddenly itching to pull the hair of the rest of the Constables present.
Panic filled Sucy, and she would have screamed out something if Professor Ursula hadn't turned then and stretched out her arms to the laidback Filipino, grateful for the older woman's arms that drew her close. Sucy focused on Professor Ursula's arms that encircled her shoulders.
People were murmuring in shocked voices, and whispering and the food in the warming microwaves was beginning to smell burned.
The Sergeant glared at her as if he was about to yell that a meek millennial teacher wasn't the boss of him. "Where are her parents?"
"S-she's under my care." Professor Ursula said, giving Sucy one last look. "S-so I'm coming with you."
Sucy's stomach churned a bit. Even when Akko's guardian pleaded for her to stay still and quiet, Sucy wasn't up for just giving into the authority when Akko was innocent in all this.
"Taking her in?" Sucy barked before they all left, "What for?"
The Sergeant placed his hands on his hips in a brandish gesture to show everyone that he got weapons that could knock everyone out in one single misstep. "Who are you supposed to be?"
"What are you doing?" Loa whispered. Yet the single question was earsplitting.
"I'm her friend!" Sucy hissed, she wasn't about to leave the ground she stood.
Everyone was listening. They had stopped what they were doing and they were all listening to the commotion, wondering if this could deteriorate into physical violence.
Thomas' father looked into her eyes in an attempt to frighten her. He then pointed an accusatory finger at Akko, who whimpered at the gesture. "It's a possibility that she's the boys' murderer. Given that she's foreign, she might have the skill to kill them. Plus she has a motive. These are all incriminating evidence."
"What are you barking about, old man?" Sucy growled. "Those are all accusations, those are not evidence. They aren't even motive for a crime since men commit more violent crimes than women according to statistics. And women are more often victims of violence than perpetrators. And besides, teenage girls wouldn't go on a killing spree just because she was bullied! If that were true, your battered wife would have had killed you years ago!"
A tempest of hot anger made Sergeant took his baton and hit Sucy by the shoulder. "Silence!"
In astonished and horrified belief, the students stared up at her and with open mouths, they choked off their cries.
"SUCY!" Akko tried to wrench herself free from the clutches that held her tight. "Don't dare hurt her!"
"Akko, stay calm," Professor Ursula hissed. "A believing heart is your magic."
It was like a magic spell. Or like a catnip to a cat. Akko calmed instantly.
Sucy was troubled when she was unexpectedly feeling scared. Wincing at the sudden pain from the blunt blow, she glared defiantly at the man who brought up Thomas. Now it wasn't a wonder why his son grew up to be such a jackass. Sucy remembered a similar situation years ago. When she was being mishandled by the authority and that she was too young to do anything.
"Kill him."
An eerie smile grew on her lips. All she needed to commit a murder was a hair strand and she already had it when she controlled Thomas' lackeys to steal a hair from the Sergeant's room.
"Officer!" Professor Ursula ran over to stop the Sergeant into striking her again when she effortlessly managed to disarm with her deft magician's hands. "Officer please, she's just a kid!"
Thomas' father blinked. Slowly grasping what happened in a jiffy. "Yeah so?" he managed to muster as he shook his head vigorously. "She assaulted a police officer. She's lucky I won't bring her behind bars."
Professor Ursula was flaring with an unusual fire. "But they are still children!"
Sucy never knew this side of Professor Ursula until now, probably one of the reasons why she was one of Akko's favorite people in the world. The French woman is calm and patient and quick to act in situations of danger, although she comes off as shy and timid when confronted by her superiors, she can be pretty badass whenever necessary.
The velocity and weight of her voice had finally made the Sergeant loss for words. He was too pissed to even rant more about his laws, or perhaps he forgot all about it or was apathetic in the long run. So he opted to stay quiet about it.
Sucy's heart jumped to her throat as she watched them leave the area. She wasn't about to be left behind, defeated. All sorts of scenario went through her head as she started to dash towards the Sergeant and rip his throat in an instant death when Professor Ursula threw her one last look. This time with a clear message that she shouldn't mess with an officer of the law, even supposing the certain officer of the law in question wasn't a good one.
Haltingly, Sucy did as Akko's guardian directed and stood there, petrified. Once the police officers were out of sight, the cafeteria continued with their crude whisperings to one another about Akko being the possible killer even when she possessed a clean conscience.
"Hmmph! I knew it. The murderer was that stinking little Asian brat. I do wonder how she was able to evade suspicions at first. The girl tries to be an actress so hard it's so artificial and laughable. She yowls, she wails, she even waved that bottle of water she had on her, claiming it's her alibi. I don't know quite how the police buy into her acts of distress when I don't believe in it myself."
As a human person was naturally inclined to look at the source of noise, Sucy might just direct all her anger at the snobbish looking blond guy with fringes that reached his cheeks.
He was Louis Blackwell, the son of the minister of defense, as arrogant as he is malicious.
"You should start writing your killing list," Loa suggested.
Sucy's suspicion of Loa being able to read her heart and mind got confirmed today. Louis is a kill for another day, so she began walking towards the ladies' room.
The lavatory was surprisingly clean. The janitors took the opportunity of a general cleaning in the student's week off. The mirrors were sparkling and the walls and floor were free of dirt. The most apparent thing was that there was no one in here.
Sucy locked the door from the inside and still checked the stalls. When she was certain that she was all alone in the room, she became conscious of the ventilator system that also brought sunlight in, casting an eerie light and shade to the deserted toilet.
"Loa! I need your help." Sucy grabbed the doll from its soft-hiding spot from her bag.
She was met with Loa's red button eyes, sending a cold shiver down her spine. "I am your servant."
"Can you do a murder without me?" Sucy hissed. "I want to clear Akko's name in a way that I wouldn't be under their radar."
"Then you are lucky."