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Review responses:

cherry-tree-of-life - In my opinion, Shun has received more than he's given ever since "moving" to Bayview, so he's doing whatever he can to give back. Klaus has a lot of issues going on, so it's up to literally everyone to figure out what exactly he's doing.

MagicxMusicxMelody - That's what I was aiming for! Money cannot buy everything! Whether he has anything to do with Shiori's disappearance will be revealed in the final chapters. Speaking of logic, I promise Shun will have more opportunities to showcase his knowledge.

Sugar Spice Rush - I did; thank you for asking! One of the victims in this chapter is (in)directly related to Alice and Shun, which might complicate the investigation at first, but just know that these two will always be innocent & on the right side. Just keep in mind for now that Shiori is still missing until the police finds something that warrants a change in her case status.

pretty-on-point - If you're referring to how Klaus suddenly returned to Bayview & decides to mess with BIU departments & employees for no apparent reason, then yes—this is the turning that nobody asked for! The other woman's identity will remain unknown for another chapter or two. Shun keeping Klaus away from Alice would be considered extra credit (& that's all I'll say before this gag/meme becomes out of control).

Chapter 14: Can't Wish For Everything

xXx

"...And that concludes today's lecture." After Alice turned off the computer and projector, the students left the lecture hall quickly, except for one individual who walked toward the podium instead. "Klaus, what are you doing here in this lecture hall?"

"Just to see what you're teaching your students."

The redhead looked around the room but didn't find the person she was looking for. Maybe Shun has more work to do today. He only attends lectures if he anticipates having down time later. She led the way outside to the hallway once the room was cleared. "At least you attended my later class instead of my earlier class. Otherwise, I wouldn't have time afterward to talk."

"How many classes do you teach altogether?"

"I only have two sections—09:30 AM or 11:00 AM on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I use my free time on Tuesday and Thursday for research assignments."

"That doesn't sound too bad. I also heard that you contributed to solving some major cases in Bayview while working on your anthology project at the same time."

"Ah, you're overpraising me. I have a couple of friends who work in the police department, and they often ask me for help. Due to an emergency, I've decided to put the anthology project on hold. Anyway, what are you doing spending your free time here?"

"After graduating from here, I returned to Germany and later earned my PhD in folklore studies at a renowned international university."

"You finished graduate school as well? What are you planning to do now that you achieved your PhD?"

"I'm not sure yet, but I foresee academia in my future."

"As in teaching? What subject would you teach then?"

"Folklore studies, of course."

"Klaus, teaching folklore or any other college class isn't as simple as you think. You took Shiori-san's classes in the past before. Learning about where local urban legends originated from and how they affect modern life is easy, but to be an instructor who needs to both research and teach is not. When Shiori-san accepted the teaching position at BIU years ago, she spent at least a year traveling around Bayview and doing research before teaching her first class. But your career is your decision."

"In that case, then I should get a head start now."

Alice shook her head faintly and changed the subject. "What made you decide to donate to BIU's physics department and possibly interested in donating to the Department of Folklore?"

"As previously mentioned, I'm highly interested in your grandfather's laboratory research subjects. Since I majored in folklore studies, I was hoping to give back to the department because liberal arts are just as important as STEM."

"As far as I know, the physics department already receives plenty of donations yearly, and I also told you that my department has enough funding after my new secretary helped me redo the department budget. Have you considered donating to other departments that are more in need? Like the counseling and psychological services, services for students with disabilities, or that program for first-generation and low-income students..."

"Interesting... and I thought I was the one who was thinking broadly. I don't believe I've told you yet, but another reason for returning to Bayview is to provide funding to the Council of Archaeology for their archaeological excavations and new exhibits at local historical museums. Since you said that your anthology project came to an unexpected halt, would you be interested in having your paperwork come to life in a museum exhibit?"

"I beg your pardon? Where did you get that idea from?"

"It's something to consider. Nowadays, most people don't have the time or attention span to read a whole book, but they might visit a museum to see and believe the history of these urban legends for themselves."

"Well... Hosting a museum exhibition is definitely a great way to bring history to life, but I need more time to think about it. This anthology project is Professor Shiori's idea, and I'm only finishing it for her since she's still nowhere to be found. Are you expecting a definite response from me soon?"

"It's not urgent, since I'm currently busy assisting the Council of Archaeology with archaeological excavations. Anyway, I'll see you next time, Alice. I hope you'll consider my offer."

That was not how I wanted to spend the past thirty minutes after finishing two lecture classes. The assistant professor left the folklore building and saw her friends hanging posters outside another school building. "Julie, Runo—what are you putting up?"

"Sakura Festival is coming soon!" the bluenette replied. "There are several of these events taking place in every single Bayview district, and the combined schedules will last more than a month!"

"Alice, do you want to visit the oldest kitsune shrine in Bayview with us this weekend for event previews?" the silver-haired student asked.

"I'm free on both days, but what does 'event preview' mean?"

"We speak with the hosts and determine what the best arrangement is for all the activities. Once you attend the preview with Runo and me, you'll definitely want to attend the actual event! All students and educators get discounts with valid school ID!"

"Good to know... Count me in, then." The redhead opened her calendar app to block this weekend off. Between teaching my two classes, doing research for Shiori-san's anthology, and searching for her, I just realized that I don't actually have a lot of free time left over.

-x-x-x-x-x-

On Saturday afternoon, the three ladies arrived at the kitsune shrine that Julie mentioned earlier this week. "Alice, have you ever been here?"

"No, I haven't... Shiori-san might've been here for research, but not me."

"That means you're not spending enough free time outside of school buildings!" They later arrived at the entrance to the altar room, where a young teal-haired man was kneeling on a zafu with incense in his hands. "I know this guy! He should be almost done with—"

"Good to hear that we have some guests in the house." The young man placed his incense in a ceramic burner pot and faced the three visitors. "Good afternoon. My name is Linus, and I am the resident priest at this kitsune shrine. I remember Julie from her previous visits."

"Oh my god, you remember me too! I brought my friends Runo and Alice here to preview this shrine before Sakura Festival comes."

"Thank you for your patronage, Julie. The flyers you posted all around BIU campus greatly boosted this shrine's popularity recently, although I'm somewhat surprised that I haven't even reached ten visitors on a non-business Saturday like today. In case Runo and Alice don't know, this kitsune shrine has existed the longest among all kitsune shrines in a hundred-kilometer radius. Let me show you around while it's not busy."

"How about we start upstairs first?"

"We can do that." Linus led his visitors to the second floor and turned left. "Most people light their incense and say their prayers at the altar on the first floor, but we also have a meditation room on the second floor for individual use, up to thirty minutes at a time."

The meditation room had one solid wooden door and a vertical window to the left. The bottom half of the window was frosted, while the top half was transparent but covered by horizontal blinds inside. Alice peeked through a section of broken blinds and saw a young woman with sandy brunette hair kneeling in prayer position. "There's someone inside already." Is that Taylor? What's she doing here?

"She's one of my regular followers and borrowed the room five minutes ago. It's 3:35 PM right now, so she should be out around 4:00 PM. Since this is an older shrine, we only have one meditation room compared to the newer shrines in the area. That's all I have to show you for the second floor, so perhaps the three of you would like to say a prayer on the first floor until 4:00 PM."

"I'll go first!" Julie volunteered.

Back on the first floor, Linus explained the proper procedure. "Since you three are just previewing for Sakura Festival, I'll simplify the rules. When bringing offerings, all items should be brand new, intact, and ideally in odd-numbered quantities. Anyone can pray to the kitsune regardless of age, gender, health, or occupation. Females can still come even during their monthly cycles. I'll have you all light incense first. Then say in your head your full name, date of birth, and what you wish for before standing this egg on the table."

Julie and Runo took turns praying before the kitsune on the zafus. Alice was the last to go, but she hesitated to light the incense. "Something wrong, Alice?" the bluenette asked.

"I haven't decided what to wish for yet."

"I have a suggestion!" The silver-haired student pounced on her friend and rambled. "Runo and I were hoping that Dan and Billy would stop being workaholics and spend more time outside of work!"

"I didn't wish for that! Stop putting words in my mouth!"

"Julie, are you implying that I'm a workaholic because my life revolves around BIU?"

"Alice, all I'm saying is that you need a better work-life balance! Now it's your turn for prayer!"

What do I really want? Find Shiori-san and bring her back safely? Advance further into my career? Then she recalled what Julie had just mentioned. Ask Shun to stay in Bayview? Actually no, that would contradict with finding Shiori-san... but they're technically not mutually exclusive either. "This is stressful. I can't think of one specific thing in particular that I'd like to wish for right now."

Linus waved his hands. "Don't worry about it. If you have a lot on your mind, then you can use the meditation room when it's unoccupied."

"I see... May I use your restroom in the meantime?"

"Of course. Just head upstairs and turn right instead of left."

The assistant professor exited the restroom at 4:05 PM. Whoever's inside the meditation room should be finished by now. But after walking across the hallway, she saw smoke emerging from under the door and looked through the window. The praying woman from earlier now fell prone on the floor. "Hello?! Can you hear me? Open the door if you can!" Alice ran downstairs immediately and exclaimed, "There's an unconscious woman in the meditation room!"

"How is that possible?!" Linus grabbed the spare keys and ran upstairs to unlock the door. Smoke filled the entire room and outside hallway as the quartet covered their mouths and noses. "What happened to the person inside? I don't see anyone on the floor."

"But I swear I saw her lying on the floor!"

"There's smoke everywhere, but I don't see any fire burning."

"Check this out!" Runo pointed to a yellow zafu on the side, on top of which were pieces of fur. "What is this?"

"The color and texture suggest that you're holding pieces of fox fur."

"Ew, gross!"

Alice looked around the entire room while fanning the smoke out of her face until she received a call from Shun. "What is it?"

"Do you remember Taylor from HR who helped me with onboarding last fall?"

She froze at the sound of the familiar name. "I remember her. Why do you ask?"

"Dan and I were about to order bubble tea from Joe's place when he got called to check out a dead body in the park nearby. I went with him and discovered that the dead body is Taylor from HR. It's really weird."

"But how did she end up there? I just saw her a few minutes ago in a kitsune shrine. She couldn't have been in two places at once."

"Sounds like this already needs your expert deduction skills."

The redhead hung up and continued fanning smoke away from her face. Even my day off unexpectedly ends up with a case... one with a very bizarre start, too.

-x-x-x-x-x-

In her office, Alice ended a phone call with the police and faced her secretary. "Dan just told me that he and Billy are both assigned to investigate Taylor's sudden death. They already obtained a search warrant to look into Taylor's recent communications."

"Do you think her death might be related to work?"

"I don't want to jump to conclusions yet, but Dan mentioned he found some interesting emails in Taylor's work inbox. She also reached out to me recently to discuss the future of the Department of Folklore, but I told her not to worry."

"Are you and Taylor particularly close? I'm trying to understand why she would directly reach out to you even though you're not hiring... Unless you are desperate to replace me already."

"Shun, you're jumping to conclusions! I'm not looking for a new department secretary yet, and even if I were, I'd definitely ask you first if you're staying or leaving. You're an excellent employee and a great example for future candidates."

"I'll... take that as a compliment. Anyway, back to why Taylor was—"

"—emailing me. I guess I'm somewhat close with her. She's a year younger than me, and we both attended the same high school before attending BIU for undergraduate. Taylor reached out to me because Klaus apparently emailed HR about what the proper procedure is to become a professor at BIU."

"Klaus... as in the guy that was in the break room with your grandfather the other day? What's his intention?"

"I have no idea, nor am I interested in asking him about it."

"Do you want to tell me about it? It could be important to the investigation."

"All I know is that once Taylor saw the email, she consulted with her supervisor and later responded to Klaus's email saying that HR doesn't know anything. It was a very vague and generic answer since HR just approves people on paper. Whether you're qualified to teach depends on your qualifications and the department's requirements. Klaus actually reached out to me to ask for my thoughts if he were actually to teach folklore studies here. I told him that teaching local folklore studies is not as simple as it seems."

"Why is he even here in the first place if he's not a current student or employee?"

"He has a family foundation under his name and currently donates to the physics department. You might be thinking about Gunz right now, but at least he never attempted to become a professor or any type of employee at BIU. In fact, Klaus is actually much wealthier than Gunz. Taylor also knows about Klaus donating to the physics department. She told me that it seems like he's trying to buy his way in using money rather than using brains or skills."

"Sounds like you're upset about Klaus for other reasons than just that."

"It's definitely annoying. Speaking of him..." Alice answered an incoming call on her phone. "How may I help you?"

"Do you have time to spare today? I reserved a space at the museum for your upcoming exhibit and—"

"You actually reserved a space?! Klaus, I told you I needed more time to consider such a large project. Turning words on paper into 3D displays isn't an easy task. Plus, I'm not the only one working on this anthology, so I can't—" However, the call ended already, and the redhead stared confusingly at her phone. "Shun, I don't suppose you'd like to go to the museum with me."

"I mean... I'm pretty much done with everything I need to do today. What was that about?"

"I'll explain on the way there. Let me ask Soon if she's free as well."

Half an hour later, the research trio arrived shortly at the local Bayview historical museum and entered the lobby. "Professor Alice, why didn't you tell me that you and the local museum were planning this display?" the auburn-haired student asked. "This is a great way to bring urban legends to life and promote BIU to the public."

"This wasn't exactly my idea, and you're not the first person to say that." The entrance to the exhibit featured two walls. The right wall featured a poster with the words 'Let the Legends Unravel'. The middle wall had a vertical window next to the opening and various placard symbols covering the rest of the space. The left-hand side was a hallway that led to the rest of the exhibit inside. "I have no idea how my former classmate found out about us working on Shiori-san's unfinished anthology project, and he insists I bring this project to life by hosting an exhibit instead of releasing a book. I didn't think he was serious."

"Sounds like he's very serious about both this exhibit and potentially teaching at BIU," Shun remarked. "I recognize some of these symbols. There's a waterfall for Hanayome-no-taki, an oak tree for the tree spirit in Kashiwagi, a mermaid for the supposed gyojin in Minakami, and a pirate ship for Stoica's treasure... What are these other symbols?"

"The first one is BIU's coat of arms. The random group that has a book, lotus flower, and bridge refers to urban legends on the BIU campus itself. The pair of lions refers to a suspected murderous lion statue in a local park. The UFO symbol is self-explanatory. This bloody television set is about a haunted waiting room at a local broadcasting station. The group of girls is about Seven Sisters Boulevard, which is a major road in central Bayview that's supposedly haunted at night. The soldier represents an abandoned school haunted by the vengeful ghosts of soldiers from World War II. The fox represents how people worship the kitsune for—" A flash of light shone through the vertical window, prompting Alice to walk over and look inside. "Isn't that Klaus?"

The raven-haired secretary also looked through the window to see the silver-haired man sitting on a metal folding chair. "Is he sleeping? He'll break his back if he doesn't sit up soon." Suddenly, a pair of hands appeared from a blind spot and began strangling Klaus with a furry scarf. "What the hell?! Someone's trying to kill him!"

The trio ran into the hallway on their left past several paintings, photographs, tapestries, wall mirrors, and display cases. "We keep turning right countless times," Soon noticed. "The inner exhibit walls must be a counterclockwise spiral."

"Just keep running." Shun sprinted through the exhibit and finally saw Klaus, who was now unconscious on the tile floor. There was no metal chair in sight. "He still has a pulse! Alice, you call Dan while I call an ambulance."

"Will do." After she finished her call, the assistant professor approached a fox fur scarf lying on the floor next to Klaus. "Shun, is this the murder weapon that you saw earlier?"

"Looks like it... I don't see anything else nearby. That's extremely bold of the perpetrator to leave this scarf behind."

Alice analyzed her surroundings and compared it to the floor plan in the preliminary museum brochure. "If this exhibit is spiral shaped with only one way in and one way out, then where did the perpetrator escape to?"

"Good point... Let Dan know when he comes to investigate."

Another thing the redhead analyzed was a vertical mirror installed into the wall near Klaus's unconscious body. How come I was able to see everything that happened here from the front entrance, but can only see my reflection now? Is this a one-way mirror? What's the reason for installing it?

Me: Happy Pi Day! I hope you all redeemed every single cake, pie, & pizza deals that was available! Funny how this story is my 13th (ignore the tens place) & this chapter is the 14th. Had I gone with the museum strangling scene from the original drama, then Alice would be in the hospital right now.

Julie: Oh no, you don't! We don't need another hospital stay for Alice!

Me: I basically eliminated a lot of "inappropriate" situations from the original drama (one of which involved an affair between a married male professor & the female department secretary) & put the emphasis on several (attempted) murder scenes instead. I also realized that Alice is almost always hospitalized or ill in some other way (at least once) in most of my stories.

Runo: What are you foreshadowing?

Me: No idea! Always carry pepper spray & a whistle with you at all times! Next chapter will feature investigation of Taylor's "two places at once" illusion, Shun overreacting to one of Alice's tricks (technically it's a whodunit demonstration), & also Shun falling off a chair.

Runo: How is that funny? Stop making fun of him!

Julie: Maybe I shouldn't have taken any of you to the kitsune shrine.

Me: If anyone needs a funny distraction, please look up "BTS Jimin chairs" on YouTube!