_{@Psyker Landshark@Ambra}

---

Well damn. He hardly blamed Munehisa for sharing an umbrella with Tanimoto. The first thing he had done before the group had stepped off into the rain was pop in one of his earbuds again and start one of the podcasts on his phone. Course this meant that when Asumi decided to rope in a soaked junior, it was on him to share the umbrella with her. Not the end of the world though, even if it meant getting a bit wet. _{@DJAtomika@Solace}

"Ebina-san, right?" He greeted her with a slight nod before he extended the umbrella to include her in its cover. It had only been a quick glance, but he did recognize her as a member of the softball club. It had been one of his responsibilities to filter out the students that had already joined a club when the kendo club had gone recruiting. _{@Fabricant451}

---

Stepping under the canopy in front of the store, Masashi closed his umbrella and shook some of the water from it before he used it to poke and prod at the pigeons. "Shoo, shoo." They weren't quite as fat as those in Tokyo, but they certainly already knew how to gather most of the scattered feed. Even with him bothering them, none of the fluffy birds bothered to fly away or throw up a real fuss as they just waddled out of the way with heads a-bobblin'. With pigeons a bit more scattered now, he glanced upwards at the crow before he stepped into the restaurant after the others.

Taking off his blazer, he brushed down his shirt a few times before he slipped past Nagi and the two extended family members. At the table he ended up taking the further seat on Asumi's side while the one directly in the middle was left empty for Nagi to take. He was busy rolling his sleeves up a bit before Asumi's despair earned a snort out of him. With Yuri approaching their table for an order and Nagi slotting herself between them though, his amusement at her misfortune would hopefully be water under the bridge and all but forgotten.

"Extra spicy miso please," Masashi added onto the order before he peeked around Yuri at the fridge by the entrance. "Ginger ale too," he added on after a moment of deliberation before he scooted his seat backwards. Might as well wait and see if anyone else was going to get a drink as well and grab it in one go.

Mentions: Asumi @Ambra, Masashi @Zombehs, Munehisa @Solace, Nagi @Psyker Landshark, Hoshiko @Fabricant451

Akira said nothing, even as Munehisa took up space next to her under her umbrella. Out in the pouring rain, she held her trumpet case close to her chest, not wanting her precious instrument to get wet. She kept quiet as they walked to the ramen joint, but her signature headphones stayed off. When it rained, she liked to listen to the rain, even though it prevented her from practicing or going out with friends.

The conversations her friends were having took a back seat as she kept pace with Munehisa all the way to the ramen shop. The quiet of the rain was nice. Peaceful and nice. Up until Nagi told two of her Yakuza minions off for loitering outside the ramen place when they wanted to eat here.

When she and her friends went into the store, Akira took a bit of extra time to shake off her umbrella of water before she went in. The polite thing to do.

"Um, the regular tonkotsu bowl will do. Extra soup."

Kenzan's reaction was priceless, leaving the hatted youth snickering a little as the question was asked.

"Come on. Not while you're listening to music. D'you know how many people hate that?"

A little thing about the Hatto-san: He lives in a world that both pushes the boundaries, but remains respectable at the same time. It was a trait that most people couldn't hate, because he was not harmful by nature. So, for instance, he was one who collected alot of information. He knew things about a number of students in this school. Mainly, it was habits and background blurbs that he could either corroborate himself through observations or hear from another whose statement - whether they knew he was around to hear it or not - would confirm it as true. Thus, there were a number of things he knew about people that he could rattle off with ease, such as...



And to that end, it allows Hakuro to get away with a minor tease involving not bothering Kenzan in the usual way, because he hates talking to people when he's listening to music. You learn something about people, you have an 'in' with them, some means to break the ice and converse with them like normal. Hakuro himself wasn't normal, and Kenzan really knew that because they were in the same class, but because he was never so outlandishly addressed by anyone, he has to ask the why. Putting away the notepad, the hat-and-coat stepped on over to the doors, which had people walking in and out of it, inspecting the storm before he turned back to Kenzan.

"There's only one way to do this, and that's at the speed of GO. The question is, 'Go where?', though. I've an inkling for the curio shop, myself, but given the storm, you might want the bookstore. I was out on a day like this over there, and they like to offer the use of a towel in case of heavy rain. Protects the books."

He wasn't sure if anyone else knew what he tended to pick up in the time he's lived in this town. Some things were known while others were not. Kenzan might never have gone to the bookstore in the rain, after all. Maybe he didn't know. Hakuro liked to know what people knew anyway, so a test here and there never hurt to find out. And yes, that IS part of why he might be showing off a little.

---

Chen spent a few more minutes looking around the top floor at the other various weapons. Most weren't too impressive. Basic knives or small swords, and even a few model firearms, but Chen wasn't quite as interesed in those. The selection, all things considered was pretty small, though given the size of the city it wasn't that surprising, the lower floor was probably significantly more popular. But nevertheless, it was still fun to look around. Chen took one look back at the Khopesh laid in the case. It was probably just made of hardened plastic or some sort of soft metal like tin or aluminum, but he'd still kill for it. Well, maybe not kill but he'd definitely do some shady stuff for it.

Well, that was a fun half hour. Maybe tomorrow he'd find some more new stuff on display from that shipment Wantanabe mentioned. Speaking of, where was the old guy? A quick scan of the room revealed him sitting behind the counter, cleaning the glass. He gave Chen a quick glance, nodded as he approached. "Hey kid, like the new toy?" "Heh, as if you had to ask. Anymore like that coming in soon?" Wantanabe looked up from the counter he'd been cleaning. "Nothing quite as exotic as that, I'm afraid. More of the usual. Though if you check in sometime near Halloween thats when I get some of the fancier stuff. Some of those cosplayers are willing to pay good money for that kind of stuff." Halloween huh? That was quite a while away. He'd need to save up for something around then. And speaking of money...

"Hey, Wantanabe, just out of curiosity, would you be looking for any part-time help? Ive got school and all, but I wouldn't mind spending my off time here working. I come here often enough as is." Wantanabe looked down at the counter, tapping his finger on the glass. "Well, as much as I'd love to have someone as enthusiastic as you helping out, I'm not hiring right now. And even if I was, I'd probably have to put you to work downstairs. It's where most of the traffic is, and as much as I know you like your weapons and what not, you have to be at least 18 to work up here because of the model firearms. Sorry, but it's the law." Chen looked down disappointed. It was a shame, but what could he do? "Well, thanks anyways. I'll stop by again sometime." He gave a short wave as he headed back down the stairs.

As Chen walked towards the exit, however, he noticed something that stuck out amongst the figurines: A lone umbrella, hot pink, for just ¥750. Fate was cruel indeed. The protection he so desired from the rain, at the cost of looking like a dumbass. Was it truly worth it? Yes. Yes it was. Slapping ¥800 on the counter, the cashier scanned the umbrella and gave Chen his change. Stepping outside, Chen opened his new umbrella. It worked like a charm, the rain splattering against it, keeping his face dry. Hopefully the walk home will be a short one.

Hakuro's response took Kenzan a bit by surprise, not that it showed in the indifferent expression he always wore, since most people didn't have the inherent respect to not bother him. Even when it was obvious he didn't want to be. "Fair enough." He knew his classmate was a bit...odd, but he didn't have reason to dislike him. Besides Hakuro was in the drama club and that bunch had always been strange to him. Not that he was really one to talk, he hunkered off in the hard to see places around the school and didn't talk to anyone in more than short sentences.

He watched lazily as Hakuro wandered over to the doors to look out and didn't bother standing until he was addressed again. He pulled the hood up on the gray jacket he was wearing and hauled his backpack off the ground from where he'd tossed it. He still wasn't completely sure if he even wanted to deal with another person, but he'd already agreed and it was impolite to back out now. Besides, if he said he was with someone else maybe his mother would stop pestering him.

"The bookstore will let us hunker down for a while," he glanced at Hakuro out of the corner of his eye for a brief moment before looking back out the doors, "I've never had an issue waiting out storms there before." He wasn't sure if his classmate was fishing for information, but it honestly didn't really matter. Wasn't like there was anything he could really do with it. He didn't need to know just how much time Kenzan spent sequestered away amongst the shelves of the bookstore trying to avoid imposed responsibility or schoolwork. Nearly past closing on more than one occasion. Just another reason be annoyed with the new rules brought on by the death of the Prime Minister.

Personally he hadn't really spent much time at Watanabe's, but he had no problem going and looking around. It was one of those locations that had always been on his radar, but he'd just never found the reason to go. "Honestly, either one is fine. Anywhere is better than hanging around the school." or going home. He pulled out his other earbud, not that it had been playing anything anymore, to shove them into his pocket. They were fairly expensive and the last thing he needed was them getting rained on. One last check to make sure he'd tucked everything that could potentially get damaged by the water he prepared to brave the weather.

The damp atmosphere always reminded Munehisa of his utter resentment for rain. It was his least favourite form of inclement weather; he found the sweltering heat of summer and even the blistering cold preferable to constantly sweeping by minefields of puddles in fear of ruining his shoes. Having to walk around in wet socks for a prolonged amount of time as a result was easily the worst feeling in the world next to losing a loot roll to the worst player in a raid.

Another chance meeting at the ramen shop would be a bit of consolation for him, at the very least. His hopes were answered as their entourage shuffled into the modest establishment, letting out a quiet cheer as Munehisa saw that Yuri was in today. He'd been a regular at Kuro-Obi's since he first transferred to Fujihama High, but even moreso after making her acquaintance. The boy was obviously quite smitten with Yuri; the bounce in his step and the admiration from his smile practically drew the hearts that rotated around his head.

Munehisa let out a yawn as he settled into his seat, his hand gesturing in a two-fingered greeting towards Yuri when she approached their table to take their order. "Seeing you is always worth a trip in the rain," his lips curled in a wily smile, giving her a wink. "Oh, I'll have the usual, Yuri. Shoyu bowl with a side of gyoza, please!" When she would wheel around to put in their order, the boy would pull out his miniature sketchbook from his pocket and begin a quiet drawing, occasionally glancing up to look in the direction of Yuri.

"Oh man, oh man, she's actually here today," Munehisa's face wore a light blush as his voice was giddy with jubilation. His drawing hand worked carefully on the foundation of his sketch as it began to come together as a dignified side profile of Yuri.

It took quite a tremendous force of will not to react as the bitch didn't just leave them alone after dragging out that slog of an excuse for a class. It wouldn't have been bad if she was just boring, but something seemed to have jammed the stick even further up Okamoto's rear today. An extra dose of unpleasantness that even his earbuds couldn't fully drown out. His eyes closed, as if that would somehow make the drawing she was holding up disappear, but it was still there when he opened them. How the hell had Munehisa let that slip out of his possession?!

With the blonde looking for any sign to even pounce on, Masashi shook his head slightly to cover up the earbud he had in and slumped a bit into his seat as he waited for things to blow over. He kept up the bored expression and did his best not to acknowledge her presence as she stalked past his desk back to the front of the class.

"Hmph." Now that was a bit too much not to react to. Thankfully the bitch seemed to have her head so far up her ass to even notice the derisive reaction he had towards her grand proclamation. Yeah, she was going to get an entire class of students expelled over a single drawing. Unless the blonde had some serious dirt on the principal, he didn't see how she wasn't going to get laughed out of his office after making such a demand. To say nothing of the absolute hell that would get raised if such an absurdly disproportionate punishment was handed out.

Dismissing her threat as inconsequential as the rest of her rantings, Masashi did spare a glance over his shoulder once the bitch finally left them alone. Asumi was... spinning from what he could see. Nagi seemed like she was about to kill Munehisa. As for the guilty party in question? Well, he at least had the decency to look a bit sorry about the damn mess they were in now. His eyes narrowed a bit at the blonde as if to drive home that yes, this was his fault in some way, before he turned back to face the front. They'd have to figure this shit out after school.

Nagi seemed pretty quick in dragging Munehisa out of the classroom once school was over for the day. By the time he had packed his things up and looked back, the two were already nowhere to be seen. It wasn't like she was going to hold anything back on though, so it wasn't a big deal. Kendo club wasn't meeting up today though, so that left him with a few options to spend his afternoon. It had been almost two weeks since his last visit, so he could check out the game center. He noticed Asumi had struck up conversation with one of their other classmates, and her mood seemed to have done a smooth reversal, so nothing to worry about there.

He was pretty much ready to leave the school when a message in their group chat gave him pause. His name had been mentioned in specific and he grumbled a bit in annoyance. To be honest, he had pretty much all but forgotten about the test until he had just been reminded of it. Which was probably why Asumi felt the need to call him out specifically. It was a better use of time then what he had planned though, and he didn't doubt that the bitch would go out of her way to bully anyone who failed in her class. She seemed petty like that. While her opinion was ultimately irrelevant to him, her classes were already a chore to begin with and earning her attention would probably just compound it. "God damn it, why can't we just get plain old boring teachers instead," Masashi mumbled under his breath as he let Asumi know he was waiting by the entrance for them.

---

"How are you going to study if you're spinning this much?" Masashi remarked with a sour pop in his mouth. He was following right behind Asumi as she was the only one who knew where they were going. "The bitch is just power tripping, and we'll figure something out once the other two show up." It was going to be hard to plan anything when they didn't know how Munehisa had even lost his damning drawing after all.

He was close enough that he probably could have made an attempt at catching Asumi as she stumbled. Her mood was sour enough without adding in a humiliating fall into garbage, but his hands were a bit full with the drinks they'd brought along as well. As such he only managed to start reaching out to help her up when he noticed it. Her fall must have shifted around some of the bags that had been covering up the body.

It wasn't Masashi's first time seeing a dead body, but he had certainly never been this close to one that had been killed. The grisly wound across his neck sure as hell didn't look like an accident. The fact that they had been dumped under garbage bags was even more damning. He was tunnel visioning hard on the body as he just stared, eyes wandering up and dow-

"Fuck!" Masashi threw a hand up and over his ear as Asumi's bloodcurdling scream finally snapped him out of it. The cloying scent hit his nose and he realized he had taken a few steps closer to the body instead of retreating like Asumi had. He had to pat his pocket a few times before he finally managed to pull his phone out, and even then he struggled with getting the pattern right. "What the shit is this," he muttered to himself as his eyes flicked towards the corpse again and he just hit the emergency dial button instead.

Oh, wow, this was pathetic. Asumi had mentioned Mune's little crush, but god damn. Poor bastard had absolutely no game. In fact, the attempt was so sad that giving him shit over it would be like bullying a small orphan child. That, and she was surprised he could even get it up for a 3D girl. Must have been running low on simp funds.

"Yeah, you'll get in there one day, tiger." Nagi reached over to pat Munehisa on the shoulder completely insincerely, her tone only mildly sarcastic.

That done, she raised an eyebrow at Ebina as she slurped her noodles. Beat up boys? Seven fingers?? Oh, for fuck's sake. The rumor mill really was going apeshit, huh. Not that this freshie seemed to have anything resembling a brain, but Nagi supposed she might as well humor her. If she let these delusions go on in Ebina's head, there was a good chance it'd morph into more stupid rumors.

"Uh, no. I beat up one. From our school, at least. And that's because the little shit was two-timing me." Nagi remarked offhandedly to Ebina. It was more complicated than that, but no one needed to know that part. Except Asumi. But that had been because Nagi actually confided in her about the whole matter. "As for the other thing, how the fuck am I supposed to know someone with seven fingers? Motherfuckers only have two pinkies to lose. You don't just chop off the whole thing at once like in the movies, that's bull. And no, I don't have ink, either. Dad would go apeshit if I did."

Regardless, her head whipped to Asumi at the next part of Ebina's ramblings. Son of a bitch. Four guys? Where the fuck were hers? God damn it, this was why she needed those rumors cleared up. How the fuck was she supposed to get another boyfriend when they were all scared off by rumors of her kicking the shit out of people? Well, at least someone was popular. Nagi didn't really have it in her to be mad at Asumi about that. It wasn't her fault.

"Well, look who's popular." Nagi ribbed Asumi, elbowing her lightly with a grin. "Use a condom, yeah? I'll get you some if you're too scared to buy them yourself." She snickered slightly, returning to her noodles. Though once they all went their separate ways, Nagi did wire Asumi her share of the meal over the phone. Even if her best friend was stupid enough to cover for the whole group, Nagi could at least do her part to mitigate the damage.

Once all was said and done, she headed off for the game center, intent on getting a few games of Tekken 8 in before going home to study. It was the year 2025, and that cocksucker Harada Katsuhiro STILL refused to add Kiryu or rollback netcode to Tekken.

___

April 24th, 2025

Nagi was going to kill Munehisa. How did he lose that (admittedly hilarious) drawing so easily? How the fuck had Okamoto found it? Of course, she wasn't stupid enough to look at Mune when Okamoto was giving the entire glass a death glare. Hell, she kept a perfectly bored poker face as the useless bitch walked around the room, trying to suss out the perpetrator. Yeah, right. Like anyone would be stupid enough to step forward and take the blame.

And then all her ire was redirected in an instant. Expelling the entire class? Bitch, PLEASE. Okamoto didn't have the clout for that shit. The principal didn't have the clout for that shit. Booting out an entire class of students over an unknown misdeed would get the parents up in arms. The school's administration wasn't going to risk that shitshow. At most, they'd get chewed out and put on extra cleaning duty or something. But the entire thing offended Nagi on principle. She was getting back at the cunt for this. The idea had already been fermenting in the back of her head for the past few days, but this lit a fire under her ass.

Once Okamoto stopped trying to scare everyone and went back to """teaching""", Nagi whipped her phone out under her desk, firing off a series of rapid fire texts to two people.

Mune, I'm only not going to kill you because I know she can't do shit
That being said, if you even THINK of confessing, I'll actually kill you
We don't give in to terrorists
Stay after class, you're helping me with something
Also delete these after you read them in case you lose your phone somehow

Tesso, I know you're on office duty today
Remember that shit with the spy cams Kono did to catch those guys slacking off on the construction site?
Bring one of those over as soon as school ends in an hour and a spare burner phone, this is unironically important to my education
I'll give you beer money in exchange

___

"Your stuff, as requested, young madam." Tesso bowed as he met Nagi right outside school grounds, handing her a small tote bag that she immediately stuffed into her school bag.

"Thank you very much, Tesso. Your beer money, as promised. And stop fucking bowing to me in public." Nagi slipped him a thousand-yen bill and turned to head back into the school, ignoring the stares of the few students that didn't have clubs leaving. They probably just thought he was bringing her some crap she forgot for club. Not technically wrong, she supposed. Still, there was work to be done.

Once she returned to Classroom 2-B, Nagi nodded to Munehisa.

"Okay Mune, here's what we're gonna do. You're gonna stand watch outside. This shouldn't take too long. I'll tell you what's up when we get outta here. Stall anyone that tries to get in, I don't really give two shits how you do it. Now get." She gently prodded him towards the door before starting to work.

The tiny little spy cam was set up in the small bookshelf directly to the side of the teacher's podium. None of their teachers this year had ever bothered to use it, and the fallout from framing another student by rigging the spy cam up on their desk would be too much to deal with. That done, Nagi fished out her burner phone and established a connection to the camera with the accompanying app. A quick check-over saw everything working smoothly, and Nagi remotely turned the camera off from her burner to save its battery life.

Perfect. Okamoto was going to be in for a surprise if she even thought about making good on her threat. Uploading the footage of her dicking around doing nothing during teaching time to a dummy Tik Tok account and spreading it across the school ought to do the trick. It'd get back to administration eventually.

With everything complete, Nagi poked her head out of the classroom, looking to Munehisa. "How's it looking out here? We good to bail?"

It's always hard to tell with Hakuro, but most people found him harmless enough, unless he was actually out to cause some damage. Most people he found to be decent enough, though. It was always they Hatto-san's way to gravitate towards people of interest who might have something to say on life or impart something useful or interesting about the world. For instance, Hakuro had been doing a food-related podcast, and had therefore gone specifically to a couple of small-but-dedicated establishments, plus a fortune cookie manufacturer, to get some insight. Back to the present, though, Kenzan had clearly been through this before, but he was apparently giving our hatted boy here the reins to decide. The curio shop was actually closer since it was IN town and the bookshop was on the edge of residential, but the bookstore had the towels, and it wasn't MUCH farther because this was still a small town. Kenzan was fine either way, and so was he. A fairly-even split.

Well...I know how to handle this.

From his pocket, Hakuro produced an American quarter. It was left behind by a guest of the Kuroda Inn. For no reason other than the fact that it was there, he considered it lucky. It also reminded him of the Batman villain, Two-Face, but the fact is that the hatted youth just hated to strain over decisions that need not take up so much time. It was much quicker and easier to just allow fate to decide in the form of a simple coin toss and just follow the ruling made. If you don't like the results, just do the other thing some other day. It wasn't an important decision, right? Hakuro decided alot of random things by this method, but not when it was a dire decision. It was mainly to eliminate INdecision when weighing the outcomes didn't help any, like now. So, he said "We'll decide this way." and flipped the quarter into the air. It spun for a hot second before landing in the palm of his hand on Tails.

"Bookstore, it is."

That was another thing about the Hatto-san. He didn't always explain the rules of this game. Still, with the two of them basically committed to the act, the doors would be opened and they would dash out against the rain!



Needless to say, the two of them would brave the storm at the speed of GO, heading to the bookstore at light speed (or close enough), though the rain didn't let up, and may have even strengthened as they arrived at the location. Hakuro stepped in, removed his hat and coat, and asked for a towel, which he offered to Kenzan, as the other boy was no-doubt by the time he got there.

"So! What's good today?"



"Wait a minute. The date's wrong on this thing. How did that happen?"



When Hakuro woke up this morning, he found the date wrong on his phone, which was weird, though stranger things had happened. No matter. Minor phone issues aside - it was probably an accident - he got up and prepared for the day unabated. Hakuro lived in a small apartment complex located in the residential district of Fujihama. The rooms were nothing special, but they were comfortable for a single person, with at least accommodations for a guest longterm or a small gathering for the hell of it or what have you. Naturally, when he got up, Hakuro checked the Hatto site. Nothing special going on. The idiot troll from before was still making noise, but mostly people were razzing him or ignoring him. 'Hatto has spoken' seemed to be a repeated theme, with gifs of Dead Poets Society going "O Captain, My Captain!". That put a smile on his face.

The school day was nothing to write home about, or write here about. Hakuro's classroom didn't have an infamous derpy teacher like Classroom 2-B. Oh yes, he'd been hearing about Miss Okamoto, alright. She definitely DID NOT seem like someone to get to know in the proper light, and today...he would learn just how bad that could get. Fujihama High had an unofficial message board and chatroom that regularly saw venting about the bad things that happened to someone, regardless of how serious it was. It was about a half an hour before the end of the day, when things in 3-A were winding down, that the topic exploded.



Hakuro arched an eyebrow when he saw it, and then as he read further on...what? The whole class? Impossible. A teacher doesn't have that power unless this were a classroom of delinquints, and last he checked, this wasn't Cromartie High School! You might make an argument for Nagi, but one thing Hakuro noticed about her was that she wasn't trying to bring that into school. At least...not so far as he was aware. Still, this was madness... The history teacher wasn't even that good a teacher, and according to the thread, all of this was over - of all things - a stupid doodle. This was unacceptable. As soon as class let out, he got moving. People normally watching Hakuro as he left usually saw him dash out or something to go for his hat and coat. He was still doing it, but he was actually moving in simple purposeful strides while his thumbs were sending messages. Messages to whom? Why, to his peers, of course, to the people on the scene whom he could contact with ease, especially those he'd put on his frankly-extensive contact list.

Azuma, tell me what happened in 2-B.
What was this picture, exactly?

Kai, I need to know what the rules are for school expulsion.
The EXACT rules, as they are written.

Rina, can I ask you to talk to someone in Student Council?
I know one of 'em is in your classroom, but I forget which.

This went on, with only a certain pause to put on the hat and coat. He stood by an outlet out of the general school traffic after that and plugged his phone into it so he wouldn't run down on batteries when he needed to get out messages. Hakuro was having effectively a dozen conversations to try and gather different angles on this situation. Azuma was the only 2-B student he had on phone, because of a recent favor which - Surprise, surprise! - was down to a bad history lesson. He helped him out a little, and thus managed a fairly-decent grade. The point was, though, that he had to get information piped in around the classroom to filter out the false information from the true. He also wanted to know the exact rules because there just couldn't be a single reason for which a teacher could actually just chuck an entire classroom into the bin. You can't punish all so severely for one person producing what is essentially an unflattering, but smirk-worthy picture. And as for the Student Council? It seemed like it was probably best for someone with a bit of clout in the main office to come to the Principal in protest, to give information indicating that Miss Okamoto was overstepping her boundaries ALOT. This could not be allowed.

Not in this town, not here and now, not while I have something to say about it. I'm coming after you, lady, and believe me, you won't just be humiliated by a simple picture. This whole school should expell YOU.

April 24th, 2025

Mentions: Masashi @Zombehs, Asumi @Ambra, Hoshiko @Fabricant451

Akira sat at her seat in class, nervously wringing her hands on the hem of her skirt. She listened to Miss Okamoto's words, clamping down on the urge to babble something about knowing Munehisa's art style and how she vaguely saw it in the picture the history teacher held up to the class. She didn't want to risk expulsion, but these were her peers! They'd done nothing against her and she didn't want to earn the ire of her entire class, or even the whole school. So she kept her mouth shut, even as Miss Okamoto railed on about how she'd get them all expelled.

Once class was over, Akira took her trumpet case and satchel out of the classroom and to the roof, where the teen commenced her daily practice. Free from her obligations to others, and with the rest of the day to spend, Akira pulled her trumpet from its case and began to play.

---

Later, outside the snack shop

Akira walked behind the group of her friends, the worries of her impending expulsion forgotten for the moment. For right now, it was study group time. At the behest of Asumi, she and several of her friends were meeting at one of their classmate's houses for a study session to pass that history test that was coming up. Frankly, the thought of having to confront Miss Okamoto again was a little scary to Akira, but she had her friends. That was enough to get over that little inkling of something being wrong.

In her satchel sat a plastic bag full of sweet candy and potato chips and she had a strawberry cola lollipop in her mouth. Sweet and slightly fizzy, it kept her mind at ease even as she listened to Asumi ramble and whine to no one in particular. She was at the back of their motley group, which included one of the year ones for some reason, and she wasn't too particularly interested in trying to counterpoint any of Asumi's whining.

Of course, everything changed when she tripped over a trash bag and exposed a dead body.

A dead body.

Akira's jaw dropped and her lollipop fell to the pavement, shattering into bits and pieces of sugar as the shock took over her body. As opposed to screaming or babbling, the pink-haired teen backed away slowly until she hit a lamppost. Then she sank down until her butt came to rest on the sidewalk. Her hands went to cover her nose and mouth as the sickly sweet stench of death wafted out from the alleyway, trembling from the shock.

This isn't happening. This isn't real. This must be some sort of joke or prank.

Kenzan turned his attention from the downpour outside back to Hakuro, a curious look on his face at the foreign currency. It only lasted for a moment before he understood the coin flip to decide where to go. Well that's one way to make it easy. He gave a nod as the bookstore was agreed upon. He didn't really want to get wet, but at this point he had agreed to it, and he wasn't about to back out now. Of course the rain had to increase in force as they bolted from the cover of school to the much more inviting interior of the bookstore. He was grateful for at least the little bit of protection that his hood gave him, but they were both drenched by the time they stepped inside. The jacket was quickly removed, he hated wearing wet clothes, and took the towel from Hakuro when it was offered with a mumbled thanks.

It immediately set Kenzan more at ease being in the familiar interior of the bookstore, not that it really changed much about the bland expression that usually had residence on his face. The multiple shelves of books that lined the store, occasionally interspersed with small tables that could be used for studying or reading, which is where he usually posted up. Just those few things pretty much packed the building to the very edges.

"I imagine books," he responded to Hakuro's question with a dry tone. He gave a friendly wave to Kudo, who recognized him from the moment they stepped inside, before finding one of the chairs to sink into, despite the dampness of his clothes. He pulled the books free from his bag and was grateful he had the brains to spend a bit more money and get one that was water resistant. A quick gesture to the chair across from him indicated that Hakuro was more than welcome to join him for as long as he liked. He fully planned on spending the rest of the day, until the store closed at least, holed up working on whatever it was that needed to get done for class.

---

Mentions: Asmumi @Ambra, Akira @DJAtomika, Masashi @Zombehs, Hoshiko @Fabricant451

One of the nice things about running early in the morning was that Kenzan didn't have to deal with his mother as he shuffled around the house. He kept quiet enough to not wake her up while still making sure he had everything for the day. Thankfully the rain from a few days ago was enough for Mother Nature and she had decided to leave the city alone for the time being. Headphones in he ran a few laps around the block before popping back to his house to grab the backpack from the front porch, no way in hell he was running with that thing on, and made the walk to school.

It was an easy day, for 3-A anyway. He heard from some of the other students about the chaos that was going on in 2-B with their history teacher. Nice thing about being quiet and out of the way meant that people were more likely to talk with him around since they assumed he wasn't listening. It was something other than the Prime Minister at least, but he couldn't believe that this Miss Okomoto was threatening to expel an entire class over something as petty as a unflattering drawing. He'd gotten into his fair share of scraps with other students over the years when it came to stupid shit like that. Taking anger out on people who were unrelated to a problem and didn't deserve the ire, but school administration was not something he was really willing to tangle with at this point. He had barely any time left before he could get out of the house and he wasn't going to let some second year teacher screw that up.

As the school day finally came to a close he watched lazily as Hakuro immediately stood and left the room; tapping away at his phone in a way that indicated to Kenzan that he was working on something. It wasn't his problem though, unless is classmate asked for something, so he grabbed his bag and headed out the front of the school to start making his way...somewhere. Not home, maybe back to the bookstore for the rest of day like usual. He popped in his earbuds before starting his music and stuffing his hands into the pockets of his coat. He let himself zone out; completely emptying his mind of anything that was causing stress as he walked towards the residential district.

The scream that echoed throughout the area was enough to push past both the music and complete dissociation, which was impressive in its own right. He ripped the earbuds free, now fully alert, and quickly began to move in the direction that he heard the scream from. The last time he'd heard something like that he'd been on a ride-along with his father in Tokyo and someone had gotten shot a couple streets over. It had not been a pleasant experience, but he never really thought about it anymore until this moment. He wanted to stay out of the whole mess with Okomoto, but of course leaving school would drag him into something else. He could just ignore it, but every bone in his body told him that he needed to see what was happening.

He rounded the corner to a small side street to see several second years that he recognized from school. Just in passing, but still. One of them was sitting on the ground, slightly shaking from what he could see, and the others were still standing nearby the trash that was piled to the side. He didn't know any of their names, at least not off the top of his head, but he jogged over to crouch next to the girl who was sitting on the sidewalk. "Hey, you alright? What the hell happened?" He glanced past the other three as the smell hit and he grimaced. Yep, just the same as what happened with his father all those years ago.

---

Wantanabe slammed a hand down on the counter, letting out a single "Ha!" he looked over to Chen. "Yeah, kid, unless she's got sort of blackmail on the principal or the superintendent, you'll be fine. Besides, even if you were to get expelled, the school would have lawsuits out the ass, and not only would the school probably get shut down, the controversy would probably keep that teacher of yours out of a job."

Chen nodded. He had a point. There'd be an army of angry parents and their lawyers out for blood, and Miss Okamoto would likely get torn apart. He wondered just how fast it would take for rumors to start spreading, and if anybody would do anything. Well, there wasn't exactly a whole lot he could do about it, considering he didn't exactly draw the picture. He wasn't exactly an artist. Maybe he should work on that? But what would he draw? Historical figures?

His train of thought was interrupted by a buzzing feeling in his pocket. He took out his phone. It was a message from an unknown number.

Hey! On our way! Bringing a lot of snacks too! :)

That must've been Asumi. Looks like it was time to head home. "Ah, sorry Wantanabe-san, looks like I gotta head out. Study plans." Wantanabe nodded and gave a short wave before going back to doing something on his computer. Business stuff, probably. Either that or solitare.

The walk home was relatively short and uneventful. Or at least it was. An ear-piercing screech that could wake the dead was heard relatively close. Oh shit, was someone actually getting mugged? Either that or somebody was seriously injured. Hell of a risk to take, but if someone was injured, he couldn't exactly turn away. And if he got mugged too, well... he didn't have much on him anyways.

Chen broke into a sprint heading towards the scream. It sounded like it came from a nearby alley. Looking down each street, he finally found the culprit: a group of high schoolers in an alley. Except... wait, wasn't that Asumi? The group seemed to be staring at something, and Asumi seemed absolutely mortified. Chen jogged up to the group, and was about to say something, when a putrid stench assaulted his nostrils. "Oh, god, what the hell is that?" Chen looked over to see the rotting corpse of a stranger strewn amongst the trash in the alleyway.

"That is... that is... a corpse." He'd seen corpses before, though they were usually mummified remains in history documentaries, or in video games, not to mention watching the prime minister blow his brains out online, but something about seeing the real thing was... shocking to say the least. This wasn't a game. This wasn't someone who had died a natural death thousands of years ago, this was a man who had been murdered and left in the street.

Chen looked towards the others "We need to get out of here, now. Who ever did this might still be around these parts. I live nearby, let's go!

This wasn’t happening. This wasn’t happening! She had to be in the middle of a nightmare. At any moment, she would wake up, eat breakfast, and go to school. Hell, if this was a nightmare, maybe the whole thing with Okamoto was part of it, too. Asumi couldn’t help but hyperventilate as she raised a hand to her other arm and pinched her skin. No, it still hurt… so, this was all real. Tears pricked the corners of her eyes and within moments, she was crying. She sobbed into her hands, her body overcome with shivers as she tried to calm herself down. Since she was in the middle of an emotional fit, she didn’t notice the approach of the third year who had run up to help them at first.

“I don’t even know who that guy is!” she wailed at the boy who had knelt down beside her. “I was… I was just walking, and then I tripped and fell on top of him! I probably got his juices all over my clothes and everything!” Asumi punctuated her statement with a frustrated squeal, her hands brushing up and down her uniform as she desperately tried to remove the invisible dead-person germs that had undoubtedly soiled her clothing. When Chen showed up and said that they had to leave, her eyes widened to the size of ramen bowls. “D-do you really think the killer’s still around?!” she asked as her voice rose several octaves higher. She leapt to her feet, her body now shaking like a leaf on a branch. “Oh God, what if he comes back and sees us? He’ll kill all of us for stumbling across the scene of the crime! We need to leave, come on, let’s go already-!”

Her hands scrambled towards Kenzan, Akio, and even Masashi as she attempted to drag them down the alleyway by their sleeves and the hems of their shirts. Though, her struggles were thwarted by Hoshiko, who had started to touch the body out of curiosity. Asumi flinched. There was no way that she was actually putting her fingerprints all over the dead body. First off, that was very gross. Didn’t know that bodies started to decompose as soon as someone died?! There were probably all types of weird germs all over his clothing! That, and… “Don’t touch him! You’re gonna get your prints all over–” Asumi began to scold her, but even that was interrupted by a flurry of footsteps from further down the alleyway.

Her eyes snapped upwards to see a pair of police officers had approached, probably having been drawn to the scene because of all the commotion. Asumi held her hands behind her back, intimidated by the police officers’ questions. If only Nagi was here– She would know what to do. Her gaze flicked to the dead body, then back up to the officers, then down at the floor, then back up to them. Just as she prepared herself to explain to the police, Hoshiko said that “she did it”. Her jaw dropped open. Did it? Did what?! “I didn’t do anything! I just left school and was gonna go to Chen’s house to study ‘cause Miss Okamoto said there was going to be a test soon and I don’t wanna fail so I was just trying to be a good student and I cared about my friends so I brought them along with me so they won’t fail the test either and get then we ALL get expelled-” Her eyes flooded with tears once more before the alleyway brimmed with the caterwaul of her frantic weeping. “I just wanna go home!”

“Okay, okay, hold up! This is getting us nowhere,” the police officer said, exasperated. He turned his scrutinizing gaze towards the rest of them that stood in the alleyway. “I think it’s best if we take you guys down to the station–”

“To the station?!” Asumi bawled. “I don’t wanna get arrested!”

The officer let out a long sigh as he rubbed the back of his head. “You’re not getting… oh, forget it. Just come with us, okay?” He turned back to his partner. “Call in an extra cruiser. Don’t think we can fit all these kids in ours.”

As the other officer leaned their face towards their radio once again, Hoshiko’s words echoed in Asumi’s mind. Maybe it was a bad idea to make this study group after all…

---

The extra police cruisers hadn’t taken long in getting there. As both police officers and detectives began to study the body hidden beneath the garbage bags, the lot of them were guided to the two cars that would take them to the station. Asumi whimpered as she was shoved into the car and became smushed between Hoshiko and Masashi. The ride to the police station was uncomfortable, though the warmth of her schoolmates provided her some comfort during the ride. Her sniffles punctuated the quiet that brimmed within the vehicle, which earned her a half-confused, half-pitying glance from the woman that drove the cruiser. Yet, even the cop didn’t say anything the whole ride there.

Being questioned by the police was… an experience, to say the least. One by one, they were taken into a singular room where they were questioned for about half-an-hour before they were cycled out for another member of their group. Asumi had been the last one to be brought into the small, gray-walled room with a big white table in the middle of it. The detective in charge of them was a surprisingly young– and short– woman who was named Saitou Naoko. When Asumi was questioned by her, Miss Saitou’s voice was always rough and overly aggressive. “Where were you earlier today?” she would ask in a snarl, then she would ask, “What time did you wake up?” or “What time did you have lunch?”. Then, she’d ask where she was at a specific time again and again. Sometimes, her questions would even be repeated. This stressed the hell out of Asumi, who hardly remembered what she had for breakfast. It was only when she started to tear up again that Saitou’s confrontational demeanor became somewhat extinguished, and she left the room to bring her back a bottle of water and some tissues. After Miss Saitou asked a few more questions, Asumi was allowed to leave the room, where she met up with her friends back in the spacious lobby of the station. The light of the mid-afternoon sun filtered through the clean windows and soaked the cheap brown leather chairs in warmth.

“That was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever gone through! I thought I was gonna say something weird under all of that pressure,” Asumi chirped as she walked up to them. She rubbed her eyes, which were sore from crying for the past two hours or so. How had it gone for everyone else? Had it been as scary as hers?

Before anyone else said anything, a white-haired man in a tan suit and with a clipboard under his arm entered the lobby behind her. Asumi recognized him as Daichi Ishida, the head detective that had poked his head in her room once or twice in order to scold Saitou when she became too hostile. He scratched the side of his stubbly face as he looked at each one of them respectively with tired brown eyes. “Well, your stories all match up, so you’re free to go. We’ll call you if we need to ask you guys any more questions,” he said.

Asumi stared at him, a wave of relief washing over her body. “For real?!”

“Yep. We just wanted to make sure you didn’t have anything to do with the whole fiasco,” Daichi grumbled. “To be honest, I doubted that a bunch of high school kids had the hearts to murder that poor man in the first place, so I told Naoko to keep her questionings brief.”

“Yeah, but you better get home before the curfew!” Saitou’s head poked out from behind the lobby’s desk. Her brows were furrowed as she glared at them in warning. “After what happened, it’ll look pretty bad if the police catches you out and about when you’re supposed to be–”

“I’m sorry for the trouble. Like I said, you can go now. Make sure to get home safe.”

They were sent off as quickly as they were brought in. Luckily for them, it was still early, and they decided to drag Kenzan along with them to Chen’s house with the promise of food. Asumi was disappointed that they probably wouldn’t have time to study, though the mention of a warm, home-cooked meal was quick to brighten her mood. It kind of sucked that Nagi and Munehisa stood her up, but she guessed it was better than them showing up and getting dragged to the police station with everyone else. That, and maybe there’d be leftovers at Chen’s house!

Asumi hummed a tune as she bounced after the group, enjoying the spritely spring breeze that drifted down the street. Their bus ride had taken about fifteen minutes, which left more than enough time for her to chill at Chen’s place before she had to head home. Even though she kept up a cheery demeanor, her mind couldn’t stop going back to what Chen had said back in the alley. Was there actually a killer in the neighborhood? Was it a man or a woman? Why were they killing in the first place? Would they target students from the school or stick to adults? Either way, the thought bothered her and made her a bit afraid. She wondered if Masashi would walk her home if she asked him to...

Asumi realized that her ponderings had made her slow her pace and the group had walked a bit ahead of her in the process. Her heart skipped a beat and she trotted to catch up with them. She was half-tempted to talk about the dead body and what they thought of it, but she concluded that it was probably a bit too heavy to discuss at the moment. They were almost at Chen’s, after all. It would be best to move on and enjoy the rest of the evening.

“Gosh, that made me hungrier than I expected!” she blurted out without thinking. With a broad smile on her face, she turned to look at Chen. “What’s your dad cooking up for us? I hope it’s something yum-my~!”

---

At Nagi’s question, Munehisa sounded from the hallway without delay. "Yeah, yeah, can we get the hell out of here now? Getting expelled don't hit the same as breaking the law!"

"Yeah, yeah. Now shut up and let's go study with the others. I already told Asumi we're on our way, so no pussying out of this for you."

The two then began to make their way down the hallway of school with the intention of leaving as soon as possible. Their rabble continued between them as they walked, with Munehisa’s voice dinning down the corridor as they arrived at the entrance of the school.

"Not like I'm gonna be able to focus, anyway-- man, this sucks! I can't believe the page tore out, much less Okamoto being the one to find it in the first place! And all those other kids she's got runnin' around like bees in a hive trying to find clues, seriously pisses me off..."

Munehisa’s phone buzzed and let out a high-pitched chirp. At that moment, the atmosphere morphed around them, as if a new realm had been wrenched from a hidden fiber of existence and brought to reality. The school’s floors, once polished and clean, now felt sticky under their shoes. The walls’ panelings were now covered in strange, brownish hexagonal structures that protruded slightly and oozed sticky, golden liquid that was viscous in nature. Even the overall structure of the walls were curved, and the shoe lockers behind them were no longer there. In fact, it seemed that the school itself had grown much larger in size.

A sickly sweet scent beckoned for them to come further inside...

His thumbs were tired, and he needed a break. The information was coming in from all the different sources. What was he planning? Hard to say. Maybe an attack, maybe to expose her, or maybe maybe he'd settle for a little anonymous leverage to force her to behave. It really depended on what information he could get out of people, his inquiries sometimes subtle and sometimes direct. For instance, Azuma made a made another doodle while in the restroom - for secrecy's sake - that was a decent copy of the original one in class, took a picture, and sent it to him. The idea that that woman was getting bent out of shape to the point of throwing the entire class out off school was patently ridiculous, and yet Azuma was insistant that she'd do it. Meanwhile, Kai had come through with a PDF file and a note stating what pages to look into. Hakuro would've preferred he just tell him over message, but he could read it over and let his fingers rest.

Hmmm, it doesn't really say much about mass expulsion, and what it says about explusion in general is just what I'd expect.

That is, the usual reasons for expulsion were violence towards staff, exceedingly poor delinquint behavior, and also repeatedly low academic scores which incline the school to have the student seek their education elsewhere, lest they stop wasting their time here. Other bits and bobs began to trickle down about Miss Okamoto. How emotional she gets, her general attitude, some of her habits around the school-

A hand suddenly came down and grabbed his phone.



Looking up in confusion, Hakuro saw a girl from another class, one whom he was familiar with...especially since he'd been messaging her earlier about the Student Council.

"Rina?"

"Hakuro...don't. Rather, you have to stop right now, Hatto-san."

She removed her hand, and the Hatto-san's head tilted slightly as his eyes narrowed a bit.

"Why? What happened?"

"You wanted me to ask the School Treasurer to bring up this history teacher and question her actions, and I'm telling you that whatever you're up to, stop right now. I asked her instead about the general opinion of Miss Okamoto instead because you wouldn't get anywhere, and you might land yourself in trouble with the Principal if one of them were to raise the question to him."

"The Principal? Why would-"

"I'm sorry, but is that music playing for some reason? It's a little distracting."

He looked down as the phone continued to play this overly-dramatic theme. Hakuro pressed a button to pause it.

"Sorry, you jostled the phone when you grabbed it."

"I might've been a bit dramatic, myself. The club does it to me. Still, if you never had Okamoto as a teacher, you wouldn't know, but she has uhh...history of her own, you could say."

"Tell me."

"Miss Okamoto has a track record for getting results. There's a host of third-years that'll swear by her, instead of AT her, and a number of successful graduates will sing her praises, as well. It's sick. Half the school knows she walks all over people, and here these ones are all simping for her."

"Simping for her? Like how?"

"You know. They would do anything for her, follow every word for even ONE iota of praise. I'm surprised you don't know this stuff. Don't you have like a stalker or something?"

"I mean, maybe. Nobody's tried taking my stuff or anything like that. But the Principal eats this up, right? He sees the good results and if he knows anything about malfeasance, he's ignoring it."

"Exactly. And I'm saying stop this because you'll end up in the Principal's office with some sort of accusation about trying to cause her harm-"

"Not entirely untrue."

"-OR the other students may start trying to invade your site or the unofficial school message board to cause damage. You don't want that, right?"

"No, I can't have that..."

There had to be a way to approach this, some method that could blow this thing wide open. If he couldn't depend on the school authority, when this woman had the Principal and students eating out of her hand-

No... It couldn't be. She's NOT that charismatic, but if she has a history of getting results with a minimum of effort, then she may be doing something else... I'll need to look into this...but differently.

He was lost in thought for a second, but then quickly looked to Rina.

"Alright, I won't continue the online stuff, and I won't use any resource that'd drag it back to anyone or anything we don't want hurt. I was keeping it fairly light, mainly like curiosity, so it should be fine. I'm gonna head home now, but I'd like you to email me all of Miss Okamoto's adoring fans, both successes AND failures."

"What're you going to do?"

"I'm going to talk to them and see just how she's really affected them. Later, though. I gotta go."

Hakuro unplugged his phone and headed downstairs to leave the school. As he did, he thought her heard a familiar voice or two, but he didn't see anything on his way out. If there was anyone there, he must have just missed them...

Unsurprisingly, his phone had barely rung once before he was connected to an operator. "We found a dead body," Masashi answered before he turned around as more people were drawn to the scene, probably by Asumi's shriek. "Uh... just down Jukishi Street," he continued talking even as he raised an eyebrow up at Chen's suggestion. "Sort of already on the phone with the cops here," he pointed out, a bit calmer now after being talked to by the operator on the other side. "Yeah, sorry, just more people showing up. Oh, yeah they just showed up. Alright."

There had been a patrol in the immediate area just like the operator said so, and with their arrival Masashi finally hung up his phone and tucked it back into his pocket. A somewhat incredulous look was aimed at Hoshiko as she went full motor mouth, before he stepped up to the officers and tried to get their attention. That was just a bit hard when Asumi had been thrown under the bus though. Nagi was going to be pissed when she found out about this. With a grunt, Masashi turned his attention back to Asumi instead and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Breathe Asumi. We're in this together," he tried to reassure his blubbering friend as he blocked the cops out from her view.

He kept a hand on Asumi's shoulder as they were shoved into the same cruiser and taken over to the station for questioning. Given her current state of mind, he took the initiative in letting the two missing know their study party had been shelved. "What? Just letting some friends know our plans have been cancelled. I didn't tell them anything else," Masashi fired back as the cop driving them narrowed her eyes at the use of his phone. He wasn't going to blab about the details of a crime like that, at least not when it wasn't in-person. It was a bit odd that his messages still hadn't been read by the time they got to the station though...

---

It was really odd that they still hadn't seen the messages a good two hours later once their group were finally free to go from the station. Given the murder they had just stumbled across, Masashi couldn't help but feel at least a bit of concern. It was probably unrelated though, and given the general mood of the group? Voicing that concern seemed like a great way to set Asumi spinning off again, so he just bit his lip and kept quiet about it. Complaining about how Saitou hadn't seemed to like... any of them was pointless as well. That had probably been a bit of his own fault, but then again he didn't have much to say. He kept his answers to a bare minimum and didn't bother to hide his annoyance at being held up. They seriously needed to question each and every single one of them? Between Okamoto and now this? He was about done with the day and just wanted to head home and bash things with his stick for a bit to clear his head.

The prospect of a free home-cooked meal was pretty tempting though, and he wouldn't even have to suffer under Asumi's gruelling tutoring before it either! Silver linings he supposed. Even if he didn't chime in with Asumi's question, a rumble from his stomach voiced Masashi's agreement well enough. He shrugged off any looks that were sent his way. Given it was well past the time to start eating dinner, how was it his fault he was hungry?

---

Just as Chen had turned to begin to run, the police had already arrived. Next thing he knew he was in the back of a police car, headed to the station. They couldn't arrest him, right? He never touched the body, he didn't go around that area often, there was no way they'd have anything against him. All he had to do was just play along, and they'd let him go. Well, hopefully.

Talking with the detective woman was painless enough. They were pretty basic questions that he could answer easily. "Do you have an alibi? Did you touch the body? Did you notice anything or anyone suspicious?" That sort of deal. The longest part was mostly the waiting, but after an egregious couple of hours, he was finally released along with the rest of his cohorts.

---

The walk home was a little tense as he led the pack towards his house, given what had happened, but eventually he heard Asumi ask about dinner, which was quickly followed by the sound of a whale's call. Er, wait, no that was somebody's stomach growling. Guess it was later than he thought. But the question still remained. He had a few ideas, but nothing concrete.

"Well, if I'm being completely honest, I don't really know for certain. Though he did recently get a new wok, and he's been dying to try it out, so it'll probably be something made with that. Of course, he'll also probably make something like..." Chen put his hand to his chin and looked down as he slowed his pace slightly. "Maybe wontons or spring rolls. Or crab rangoon. He loves crab rangoon."

He could see his house in the distance. It didn't stand out much the rest of the other nearby houses, but it was still his home. He pointed to his house off in the distance. "Looks like we're almost there. Hopefully we can still get some studying done. If not, then, well, maybe you guys can come over again sometime. "

There was no way that Kenzan could even try to get a word in edgewise as the girl he had crouched next to started to ramble about what had happened. Well, at least they didn't actually see it happen. He resisted the urge to cover his ears as she squealed about germs getting on her clothes. He didn't even bother trying to say anything when another second year showed up and told them that they needed to get away from the area in case the killer was still around. He scoffed quietly at the notion; having looked at the body the blood was dry and the eyes were filmy which told him that the guy had been there for a while, at least several hours. He wouldn't really call it a perk, but having an officer for a father meant he knew more about decay than he really should at his age.

"I don't think we need to worry about that," he muttered quietly, though he acquiesced to Asumi pulling at his shirt, if only to get her to let go of him sooner, before stopping and staring at the first year that decided it would be a good idea to touch the body on the ground. He didn't need to say anything as she was berated by the same second year who had been talking this whole time. It was honestly exhausting the amount of words that she was able to string together all at once. Especially when she was trying to explain what had happened to the two officers that arrived on the scene. Either drawn by the scream or the cellphone in the hands of one of the other second year boys. He easily stepped back and let that same boy take over trying to comfort the frantic girl in front of him. That was decidedly not his area of expertise and all he really wanted to do was get back on his way to the bookstore.

A sigh dragged itself free as the officers said they needed to go down to the station. This is why I don't get involved in this kinda shit. He didn't resist when they told him to get into the second cruiser. He didn't address either of the other people with him as he plopped his backpack onto his lap and stared out the window until they got to the station. He could almost imagine a ride along with his father, had he not been shoulder to shoulder with some second year. He was familiar with the protocol and the station, though it was smaller than the one in Tokyo, but more or less the same.

---

The questioning was standard, despite the vague aggression from the officer who was doing it. It wasn't helped by his generally indifferent recounting of the, maybe, two minutes he'd been at the scene before the officers showed up. Still, he wasn't lying and that much was obvious so he was let go without much of a fuss. His only concern was that they would call his mother. That would end incredibly poorly at best, and absolutely horribly at worst. He pushed himself to his feet from where he had been comfortably reclining in one of the chairs in the lobby as the head detective came around and told them they could leave. It was all the standard fanfare he had expected, and oddly comforting in its familiarity despite being questioned for a murder investigation.

He had adamantly tried to refuse going to Chen's house. He didn't know any of these people and that alone was making setting him on the verge of shaking hands. Arguing with Asumi got him nowhere though and so he, begrudgingly, trailed behind the other students as they walked. Better to just keep his head down, be polite, and make sure that he could get out of the situation without making a fool of himself. Easy enough. Maybe. The promise of free food, that he didn't have to make himself, and the fact that he didn't want to go home was a good enough reason to tag along. He had no reason to stick around if they were going to study as Chen said, but at least dinner would be nice.