Tuesday, June 23, 2009, 4:45PM
Gekkoukan High School, Home Economics Club

"I was wondering ze proper way to bid one farewell in Nihongo." Makoto overheard Bebe ask Kotone as he walked into the clubroom. "I have been told zat Sayonara is too, how you say, formal for everyday speech?"

"Oh, you want to say 'hasta la vista' to them." Kotone said cheekily. Immediately after she felt someone karate chop her on the head. "Ow!"

"Don't fill his head with nonsense." Makoto said as he sat down with their food. "'Ja ne' works far better in a casual context."

Kotone grumbled as she rubbed her head. "Meanie."

"No complaints if you want food." Makoto countered.

She filched a sandwich from him, sticking her tongue out at him in the process.

Bebe chuckled at their antics. "By ze way, what do you zink about Adachi-sensei?" Bebe asked them as he unwrapped his strudel. "He seems razer young for a teacher, non?"

"Yeah, dude looks more like a college student than a teacher." Kotone said. "It's kind of funny how they replaced Ekoda with someone young enough to be his kid."

"It's the circle of life." Makoto said drolly.

"Is it?"

Makoto shrugged.

"Speaking of circles," Bebe stood up and walked over to his bench, "what do you zink about zis design?" He held up a kimono with a pastel blue concentric circle design.

"Ahhh!" Kotone squealed and clapped her hands together. "It's so cute!"

Makoto nodded approvingly. "It's pretty good. I can only hope to make something that good looking."

"Why 'ope when you can do?" Bebe asked as he put it away and gestured to their equipment.

Makoto chuckled. "Touché, monsieur."

"Yeah," Kotone punched the air, "andale muchachos!"

Wednesday, June 24, 2009, 2:33PM
Gekkoukan High School, Class 2-F

More often than he'd like to admit, Junpei Iori found himself wholly ignorant about what was going on in class. Some days it was Ms. Ounishi asking aloud about the difference between magnesium sulfate and magnesium phosphate (he didn't know that). Other days it would be Mrs. Terauchi quizzing him specifically about pseudo-Anglicisms (he didn't remember that), or Mr. Miyahara stopping a lecture dead in his tracks for twenty minutes to ramble about which country invented algebra (he couldn't remember it now).

But he at least had context for all of those. Some kind of grounding. Edogawa's "Integrative Learning" was more mystifying than anything about algebra could possibly be.

"The collective unconscious is separate from the individual, or personal, unconscious, much in the same way that sum total of all literary work is separate from one's person library." Edogawa explained. "What we know that we know is only a small fraction of what we know, these ancestral ideas that have been inherited through and by all ages, cultures, and philosophies."

Junpei glanced at the rest of the class, desperately trying to find out if he was the only person completely at a loss. Several students looked bored and listless at his lecture, others confused and slipping into their own kind of collective unconscious. Kotone and Yukari dutifully took notes, even as the latter was fidgeting in her seat, constantly looking up and down between him and her notes.

Makoto, meanwhile, had no such look on his face. He looked as unbothered as ever. Not a hint of confusion or worry on his face as he stared impassively at Edogawa, his notebook closed and his hands in his pockets.

Screw it. Junpei dropped his pen on a blank page. If it's on the test, it's on the test.

Thursday, June 25, 2009, 9:41PM
Iwatodai Dormitory, Living Room

"We're home!" Yukari announced as she, Fuuka, and Kotone arrived, each carrying several overstuffed gift bags.

Akihiko raised an eyebrow as Makoto stared blankly and Junpei whistled at their haul. "Where have have you three been? You usually don't come home this late. And what's all that stuff you bought?"

Yukari winked and stuck her tongue out at him. "Girl's secret."

"Sorry senpai." Fuuka said with an unusually mischievous grin. "It's a secret to everyone."

"Yeah!" Kotone yelled. "It's a secret!"

Akihiko held up his hands. "Alright, alright, I get it. I won't pry."

As the girls went upstairs, the boys returned to their game.

"OK," Junpei paused, "remind me one more time, can the silver general move to the side or...?" Akihiko shook his head. "Dang it."

"Well, well, well," Makoto said, chin resting on a tent made of his fingers, "looks like my winning streak continues."

"Winning streak of what, two!?" Junpei yelled as he smacked his piece down on the board.

Friday, June 26, 2009 4:09PM
Gekkoukan High, 1st Floor

As Makoto came downstairs, he spotted the track team manager, Yuko Nishiwaki, by the entryway. Their eyes met, she waved to him, and he waved back.

"Hey Makoto-kun. What's up?" Yuko asked.

"Not much, you?"

"I gotta go get some club stuff in a bit." She turned to grab something from her shoebox, and her lips curled up in disgust. "Oh. Great." She muttered out.

Makoto tilted his head. "Something wrong?"

"It's nothing." She said with a forced smile. "It's just the same stupid prank every time. Talk about unoriginal..." Makoto peeked in and saw a wad of gum wedged between her shoes. "Phew, at least my shoes are safe, going that far would've crossed a line."

"You know who did it?"

"I have my suspicions, but," she looked away, "I'd rather not confront her about it. You just get used to it, you know."

Makoto raised an eyebrow. "No, actually, I don't know."

She shrugged. "Getting worked up about it just tires you out. It's not worth worrying about it." She narrowed her eyes. "But if I catch her in the act, I'm going to grab her by her stupid dyed hair and teach her a lesson." When she saw Makoto smile and nod in approval, she hurriedly amended her statement. "Uh, that was a joke, I was joking, OK? I'm a nice girl, I wouldn't do that." She said defensively.

"If you say so, Nishiwaki-san. But if you need help in a fist-fight, I know a couple of girls who could serve as back-up." Out of the corner of Makoto's eye, he saw one of said girls walking towards them.

Yuko burst out laughing. "Stop that! I wouldn't do that." She protested.

He shrugged. "If you say so." He turned to Kotone. "You ready to go?"

"Yep." She said with a...difficult to read expression on her face. Utterly neutral and calm, but her eyes narrowed just a hair. "Hey Yuko-chan."

"Oh hey, uh, Kotone right?" The brown-haired girl nodded. "Are you going to that thing tonight with the tennis and volleyball teams? I was gonna go, but I gotta do some last-minute shopping for track team."

She shook her head. "Sorry, I'd love to go, but it's our turn to clean the kitchen tonight." She said, motioning to Makoto. "Mitsuru-senpai would be preeeeeetty peeved if I played hooky."

Yuko nodded slowly. She looked at Makoto, and then to Kotone, and then back to him again. "Oh yeah, you two...live together in the same dorm, don't you?" She asked hesitantly.

"Mhmm." Kotone said with half-lidded eyes, as the edges of her lips curled upwards just a smidgen. "Makoto lives riiiiight under me, just one floor down. We're never too far away from each other."

"...o-oh." Yuko's eyes widened a bit. "So, uh, Kirijo-san is the one that runs everything?"

Kotone nodded. "Yep, she's the closest thing we've got to regular adult supervision." She said with a grin. "Well, when she's actually there of course. You can imagine how much of a busy bee she is, being a third year and the heiress to such a big company."

Yuko gulped. "Y-Yeah, totally."

Makoto's own eyes wandered back and forth between the two. "We should probably go soon if we want to get it done early." He said to Kotone.

"Yep~." As they left, Kotone waved to Yuko, her eyes narrowed and her smile stretching from cheek to cheek.

Yuko waved back weakly.

"Cleaning the kitchen, really?" Makoto asked her as she caught up to him.

She shrugged and yawned. "I just didn't feel like going tonight. It's as good of an excuse as any."

"Darn, now we can't go to Chagall lest anyone sees us and out you as a liar." He said with a light smile on his face.

Kotone snorted. "Oh no, we'll have to make our own coffee and hang out at home, how terrible."

Makoto chuckled. A loud crackle of thunder boomed over them, and a gust of wind blew down on them. "Looks like we're finally getting some rain this year."

"Yeah." Kotone said. "What do you think of Yuko?"

"Hm?"

"I mean," she looked away, eyes fixed on the trees swaying in the wind as they walked, "you've been on track team for a bit, so you're probably close to her by now."

Makoto scratched the back of his head. "Not really. She's nice and she works hard for the team. That's really all I know about her. I think her and Kaz are pretty close?"

"Well I heard from some of the other girls in practice the other day she's actually a bit of a man-eater." Makoto raised an eye. "She apparently just jumps from boy to boy, even going after other girls' boyfriends."

"That...doesn't really sound like Nishiwaki-san." Makoto lightly protested. "At all."

She shrugged. "Well that's what I heard. They say she just casually chews boys up and spits them out."

"...are they the same ones who are chewing up and spitting out gum in her shoebox?" He asked, a bit more cross than he intended.

Kotone's eyes widened. "H-Huh?"

"While Nishiwaki-san won't do anything about it, apparently it's been a problem for a while now." He said, eyes narrowed and staring directly at hers.

"...o-oh." Kotone said quietly. "That's messed up."

"Yeah." He turned towards the road in front of him. "It's pretty messed up."

They continued their walk back home to the dorm in silence.

When the two entered the dorm, they saw, at the far end of the room near the stairs, a police officer talking with Sanada.

"Again, sorry for wasting your time, Officer Kurosawa. I'll be sure to give them your greetings when she returns." Sanada said before he went upstairs.

The police officer grunted. He turned and found the two students. "Hello officer." Makoto casually waved.

"Did something happen?" Kotone leaned in, hands clasped together and red eyes filled with worry. "Is anyone hurt or in trouble?"

The officer shook his head. "No, miss, I just needed to discuss something with Kirijo and Ikutsuki. But apparently these two distinguished people are meeting somewhere else today." His voice dripped with barely concealed annoyance.

Makoto nodded. "I see."

"I've been in contact with Officer Kurosawa, while he's not privy to some of the more sensitive details regarding SEES' operations, I have shared with him and the city's police force the information that I and your father have deemed relevant.

"I assume you know about..." He gestured to the dorm, not wanting to tip his hand if not.

The officer eyed him down. Makoto struggled not to flinch or break eye-contact. "The only thing I know is that there's a lot in this world that I don't know. I've been informed enough to know that, whatever it is you're doing, it's bringing people back from the brink of Apathy Syndrome and keeping those late night disturbances from getting worse." He adjusted his hat. "My job is to maintain peace in this city, regardless of the circumstances. While I might just be an ordinary police officer, I'm serious about doing my part and doing what I can."

"I see." Makoto repeated.

I want to make something clear, leave this to us. You must focus on Tartarus." He said firmly. "There's no need to divide your focus even further. Trying to do too much will simply leave you unable to accomplish anything."

"I don't know if you're allowed to answer this, but, you're covering the Ekoda case, right?" Makoto asked.

Officer Kurosawa sighed. "Technically I'm not supposed to say anything," he narrowed his eyes, "but, so long as what I say here remains in this room," both quickly and demurely nodded, "I can confirm that we do have a suspect. A former student with a motive, a missing two million yen from his bank account that could have been used to pay a hitman, and he was caught partying with some unsavory types after Ekoda's death was officially announced on the news." He rolled his eyes. "Not that it's good enough for the prosecutor's office."

"Huh? Wait," Kotone scrunched her face, "if you have all this evidence why don't they prosecute? I thought they had like a million percent success rate."

The officer snorted, and flashed a grin. "This isn't America honey, I can't tell you how many prosecutors I work with chomp at the bit to get a quick and easy case, but ignore us when we don't hand deliver a smoking gun to them. If the criminal doesn't sign a confession and walk us through every step of the crime, a lot won't even bother charging them."

His smile turned right back to a frown. Makoto struggled not to shudder from his icy glare.

"Circumstantial evidence is ultimately just that, circumstantial. Maybe he spent that two mill on a hitman, or maybe he actually did lose that money gambling, like he said. Maybe he was celebrating the death of the man who was responsible for expelling him, or maybe he was just going out with his friends and it just so happened to be bad timing. Until we can track down the guys running Revenge Request, we lack the actual hard evidence needed to put their alleged customers away."

"I see." Makoto mumbled. "Well, thank you for your time, sir."

Officer Kurosawa tipped his hat and left.

"That guy's scary..." Kotone mumbled.

"Yeah."

Saturday, June 27, 2009, 8:11AM
Gekkoukan High School, Class 2-F

"I'm just saying," Kotone swung her backpack over the back her chair as she sat down, "the amount of blood is what makes the movies stick out."

"I mean I know that, I recognize that as objective reality, I still think it looks like crap." Makoto argued as he sat down.

She shook her head. "It looking like crap is part of the culture of these movies. It's part of a historical lineage."

Makoto's eyebrows scrunched up in disbelief. "Culture? Historical lineage? What are you, an anthropologist or something?"

Before she could reply, Kenji ran into the room, right into the middle of the two, and asked Kotone point blank, "You know where Rio is?"

Kotone leaned back, eyes wide. "Whoa there boy, personal space. Back up."

"S-Sorry." He stepped back and rubbed the back of his head. "But seriously, have you talked to her recently? Do you know where she is?"

"Uh, no, I haven't seen her since Monday." Kotone asked. "Why?"

Kenji looked away. "It's...probably nothing, but her parents said she didn't come home yesterday, and she didn't call. They asked my parents, and my parents asked me, and, well, I don't know nothing."

Resisting the urge to point out Kenji's double negative, Makoto instead asked him, "She's not the type to play hooky is she?"

Kenji snorted. "Dude, she's like the least likely person I know to do that."

"Phone?" Kotone asked as she fished out her own and started dialing.

"I tried calling her this morning. Nothing." He walked back to his desk, annoyed and muttering something.

"Hmmmm..." Kotone got up. "If I'm not back in like five minutes, come outside."

Makoto raised an eyebrow, but simply nodded as he pulled out his MP3.

As the five minute track he picked to time her wound to a close, students slowly began filling up the room, with none of them being Kotone. He got up and walked out, finding her pacing near the door on her phone.

"Tsk." She snapped her phone shut, eyes narrowed. "I called almost a dozen people from volleyball club. Every single time it said the phone isn't available."

"That's...worrying." Makoto scratched his head. "What did you say they were going to do last night?"

She shrugged. "I dunno, all they said they were going to go out on the town and have some fun. Rio-chan only went with them because she's trying to be more amenable to them as team leader." Kotone's nose scrunched up. "I...encouraged her to go because..." she shook her head. "I don't want to get into it, but there's been some rough patches between the team lately. Rio-chan said she was going to go as a gesture of good faith, and as a team-building exercise. I can't imagine she'd let them do anything really stupid, or at least dangerous, you know?"

"Can you remember anything else?" He asked. "Even like, the smallest thing?"

Kotone paused. "I remember some of them from both clubs complaining a while ago about how the girl's fencing team were being really snooty lately."

"The one Kirijo-senpai is on?"

She nodded. "Say what you want about senpai but she's not as...intentionally rude as they can be. Some of the girls were talking about how much they wanted to get back at them. Rio-chan told them to stop thinking about that, but recently it was..." she put her hand on her chin, "I think it was Chika-chan who said something about them buying stuff to go and prank them."

"So they would have done, what? Bought a bunch of paint, broke into the school, and graffitied the fencing team's swords?"

She snorted. "That's more of a guy thing, but I dunno, maybe? I guess they could have done that. But that wouldn't explain why I can't contact anyone. If they were out late, they'd go home. If the police caught them breaking into the school, they'd arrest them and call their parents. It's not like they would have...gone into the school...late at night...and never come back."

The dawning realization slowly hit them both.

"Oh my God." She whispered.