Haas casually stepped out of the Earth dormitory hallways and into the main lobby, where he could catch a brief glimpse of a boy with spiky brown hair and a Wind dorm jacket being dragged away. It didn't quite click at first as to who it was, but common sense told Haas that they were probably the one who caused the roar from earlier. Looking to the other end of the room, some half-conscious students were being dragged or carried to their respective dorms by friends of theirs, with the colors ranging from brown to red. Curiously, there weren't any white jackets to be found. Divine dorm students probably have other duties to attend to. Haas turned his head and began to say "Hey, Hayato, any idea of-," but cut himself off halfway after realizing the boy wasn't behind him. That was rather odd. The boy turned his head back again towards the hallways, seeing three figures crawling out of the Light dorm hallways. It was the trio of Leander, Megan and ... a cardboard box. Leander had a small sweat, probably from chasing around Megan all day.
"Oh ... hey, guys." Haas awkwardly greeted them with a half-hearted wave. He figured he knew why they came out of Light.
"I'm guessing you found something out?" Haas asked the trio, scratching the back of his neck. After getting briefed on the situation, Haas couldn't help but worry a little bit. It's lucky they got some info, but it's not so lucky that they'd have to crash an illegal duel to find out more. Taking a deep breath, Haas began to spill out his thoughts.
"Okay. So, we don't know the name except for the one guy, right? And, if we want to find out more, we'll need to talk to whoever left the note. So... you'll think it's stupid, but I think we shouldn't tell the teachers about this. You said it was tomorrow night, right? Let's keep it between us and go check it out. It's the only lead we've got for now."
The rest of the little group all split up and did their own little investigation, though only after getting kicked out of the cafeteria for loitering. Ben managed to stumble across Hayate and joined her in the attempts to gather people, but even with the popular boy's charisma they didn't have much luck recruiting people. Most students thought of it as a joke while others wanted nothing to do with it. They did manage to get more info on the Dark Dorm, though, as some first years told them how their friends mysteriously transferred there overnight and now don't even talk to them anymore. Some even say they spotted students sneaking out at night, going outside of the academy and into the desert. The stories never seemed to agree on where they went, though. Some say the students went to the Action and Turbo dueling arenas, some claim they tried to follow the road outside of the academy and others spotted them going to some sort of ruined building in the distance.
Angelo managed to meet back up with Camryn, where he shared the info about Ethel's Duel Runner. Camryn got curious herself and dragged Angelo back, forcibly, to check out some other runners. None of the ones they checked had any records of dueling with Speed World - Virtua on the day of the incident, which was to be expected. Some Duel Runners, however, stopped dueling after a certain date. For those you could reasonably assume that they just haven't dueled in a while, strange as it is. Still, there was a noticeable pattern in them; they all dueled the same runner before stopping. The tag read 'XTR-M15-4T3'. The duo tried to find the runner but seemed to be unable to. When Ryder was asked about it, he just said it belonged to a third year student in the academy. They had permission to use the track even on after-school hours, which seemed to match up with the times the runners dueled them at. The two of them figured to come back later, to see if that student knew any more about the situation.
Joshua, Michelle and Nathan stuck together for the most part, asking the teachers around the school if they knew something concerning the incidents. All of them reacted either with denying that they knew something about it or just dodging the question, with the rest of the staff seeming equally oblivious. There was one teacher, however, that was a little more loose-lipped than the rest. When the duo asked Melchior, he seemed more than willing to help. Melchior noted that the incidents always seemed to target specific students, never the academy as a whole and a close eye was being kept on said students. He even pointed out that Nathan and Joshua themselves were two of the ones being watched, both for different reasons. Joshua had won the contest and Nathan stood out in the crowd, with his flashy performances. The announcer warned the three of them to be more careful and stay out of trouble.
At the end of the day, the various small groups got together and shared the information they'd gathered with each other. They didn't have nearly enough clues to piece the mystery together, but they at least knew of a few things that happened around the campus. Students were disappearing off in the night, turbo duelists stop dueling after dueling a certain third year and one of the Light dorm students had been called out to duel in the middle of the night for an Ante. The group decided to split themselves up again and investigate all three of these in the same night, on the night that the ante duel was about to happen.
Night fell and the hallways were pitch black. The investigations group all agreed to meet up a few minutes before midnight, so they all snuck out of their rooms with... varying degrees of success. At least one noisy person seems to be in the Earth and Light dorms, because Hayato, Amelia and Andre could faintly hear the students sneak out of their rooms and into the halls. It was quite the effort to avoid the guards in the narrow hallways, who had bright flashlights and nearly spotted a few of them crawling out. The students soon found themselves at the stairwell, which was predictably enough unlocked. The group managed to meet on the ground floor, by the reception which was unmanned at this hour. After making sure nobody was around except for them, Haas began to whisper.
"Okay, so, let's go over this again... Camryn and Angelo told us that the Turbo Dueling arena should be unlocked at this hour and someone's driving around on it. They don't seem to be directly related to either of the incidents, but seems pretty suspicious. The note from Maisy's group said that arenas K and L on floor 15 should be where the Ante duel is located in a few minutes. As for the missing students... we don't know much about that, it's best if we hide around and follow anyone suspicious. If anyone wants to change groups last-minute, tell me now... otherwise, let's move!"
While the investigation group was busy discussing their plans, Ignia found herself in the infirmary again. Even though it was past school hours and she wasn't allowed there, Ignia had discovered that it was empty for a few minutes while the midnight nurse switch was happening. Much to her shock, though, Ethel wasn't there anymore. Ignia had gotten to know that Ethel woke up the day before but wasn't allowed to leave the infirmary yet, so she was hoping to see her friend again with this visit... but neither she nor her Duel Disk remained in the room. The only logical conclusion was that she either left on her own or had been moved, both of which seemed equally plausible.
As for Ethel herself? She was weakly leaning up against the wall with her Duel Disk strapped tightly to her arm, trying to stumble forward through the darkness. She was just as aware of the midnight switch as Ignia was and had made use of it to escape, loathing the idea of staying helpless for even a second longer. That had turned out to be not such a good idea, as Ethel's body was still weak from being in coma for so long coupled with her rather... frail physique. Her determination and rage surpassed all of that, though, as she reached the stairwell and painfully started to make her way up. A normal person would be thinking on going back to their room, but Ethel wasn't thinking about that. Her mind was still firmly stuck on what happened one week prior... on that day someone crashed her Duel Runner. The girl couldn't go back to her room for now anyway, she'd get caught by security. Instead, Ethel was going to go up. She could hide in one of the arenas until the day, and then she was going to get her revenge on that person, even if it were a fool's errand to search for them now.
