[X] Work quietly, focus on exploring the school while searching for anything unusual.
I briefly entertain the idea of trying to hold casual conversations with the students, or the professors, before dismissing it. This is my first day and there have been mysterious disappearance recently: if I ask about the latter I'll definitely sound suspicious! For now it's better to work quietly and focus on exploring the school while searching for anything unusual.
It's not like I'll meet any of those people ever again after the investigation is over.
====
Since school hours have just started the hallways are mostly desert, save for the occasional student likely sent on an errand: they would give me a fleeting glance, politely avoid the area where I cleaned and then be on their way. That allows me to work in peace, because the floors really need a good sweep! Is this the result of several days of negligence or are normal teenagers capable of generating so much filth in the daily span of...how many hours of attendance high school requires again?
'You're asking me?'
'Yeah, sorry.' I answer while passing the rag over a window.
'So, do you sense anything?'
'Nothing specific...but I don't like this place. I have a bad feeling.' Mikazuki muses.
Before I have the chance of replying the sound of something falling and breaking catches my attention. Followed by a stern voice saying loudly, but not to the level of shouting: "What are you doing?!"
The origin is a door left half-open. Peeking inside I see what looks like an art room: a clearly mortified girl is standing next to a fallen palette that has stained the floor with many colors and a broken vase, while a stern-looking female teacher, with red hair tied into two long braids and round glasses, is glaring at her. The other students, still seated on their posts, are watching quietly.
"Well?" The teacher speaks again.
"I-I'm sorry Miyahara-sensei!" The girl squeals. "I wasn't paying attention! It will not happen again!"
"It shouldn't have happened in the first place." She breaths out, eyes closed for a few seconds before they snap open. "Time lost because of your interruption aside, how are you going to clean this mess?"
"If I may." You interrupt, raising both mop and bucket. "I believe that's my job."
"Finally someone who doesn't waste time. Get to work." The teacher nods before glaring back at the girl. "Kaba here will assist you, as punishment." The girl just wordlessly nods.
'Biiitch. She has a great body, but what a biiitch!'
Ignoring Mikazuki's comment I shrug and start working, allowing the girl called Kaba to assist me. It's only when we go outside the classroom to refill the bucket with clean water that I address her, trying to sound casual: "Your teacher is very strict."
"Miyahara-sensei just wants us to do our best. She may sounds mean but that's her way of caring for us." She replies with a small smile. "She always tells us the reason for her success is that she held herself up to those same standards."
"She's famous?"
"Of course!" She says hotly. "Miyahara Yo-sensei is an alumni of this school and a rising star in the artistic community. She's going to open her own gallery soon, and even donated some of her paintings to the school. There's one right there."
I follow her pointing finger and find said painting, located in the corner where the corridor follows the wall outside and moves ninety degrees to continue along the other side. It's an abstract thing of undulated and flowing lines like running water, colored white, red, orange and many shades in-between.
'Hold on. Something with it seems familiar...' Mikazuki suddenly says.
'It's the same for you?'
'Nope.' I mentally shake my head.
'But if it can help I don't find any appeal in it.'
'Me neither. Maybe I'm wrong...I need to think about it.'
'Take as much time as you need.'
After we finish cleaning I say goodbye to Kaba and go back to cleaning the rest of the school.
====
Eventually I finish the main building and move to the one located behind it, the two connected by a passageway on the second floor. Its structure is identical, but many classrooms are used as storage rooms. Or just not at all if the accumulated dust is of any indication.
Out of curiosity I first check each room before starting the cleaning. "Here...Nothing." I close the door and open the next one. "Here...Nothing." I repeat the process. "Here-"
The room is nothing special. There are chairs and tables piled up in cluttered stacks along the edge. A male student is sprawled prone on the ground, his head resting on the lap of a girl with shoulder-length coral hair sitting on the ground with her legs spread open, while a short girl with long ebony hair is sitting on the guy's back, her hands resting on the guy's ass.
'Do it do it do it do it do it-' Mikazuki begins to chant for some strange reason.
Three pairs of wide eyes meet my own. "...Please don't do anything you may regret later." I finish before closing the door and politely walk away.
Not even a second later the door slams open again and the three students try to tackle me. 'Try' being the keyword, because their combined strength is not enough to topple me, though I'm sure that for any external observer the sight of three teenagers hanging from a taller adult would be hilarious.
====
"-And that's why nothing untoward happened!" The ebony haired girl fervently insists while waving a finger to the side at the guy, who is surprisingly taking everything in stride with a resigned expression. The other girl is still blushing and refusing to meet everyone's gazes. "As if I would even entertain the thought of doing something even remotely similar with that-"
"I get it, I get it!" I raise both hands to stop the deluge of words. "So, if I understand right you are the Service Club, which...helps people in need?"
"Essentially, yes." The guy nonchalantly answers.
"And your current request involves dealing with the general negative mood present since people start missing. You were tossing around various ideas and, somehow, it ended with..." I trail off.
"I-It was me." The coral haired girl whispers. "I thought we could do a show like the cheerleaders, but when we got on top of Hikki-N-N-Not that way!!" She wildly flails, blush intensifying.
"Don't worry about that. One of my life's ambitions is to be stepped on, especially if done by girls who consider me worth even less than garbage." He deadpans.
As they descend in a three-way argument that I honestly have trouble following, Mikazuki's comments not helping in the slightest, I sigh and adjust my cap. "I need to get back to work. Good luck on your endeavor."
"Please forgive us for any trouble we have caused you." The ebony haired girl stops scolding the guy to give me a small, polite bow. "Do not worry: on the honor of the Service Club, I promise that by the time the missing students are found safe and sound they will be able to return to a positive and balanced scholastic atmosphere."
I'm halfway outside the door but that comment makes me stop. "And if they are
not found safe and sound?"
"What do you mean?"
I look over my shoulder. "Maybe that's no my business, but have you ever considered the possibility that students are missing...because they're
dead?"
The coral haired girl blanches, while the guy blinks as if not expecting my comment. The other girl, however, firmly rejects my hypothesis. "Please don't be ridiculous. In the first place, the short time between each disappearance clearly indicates they're related. Even if someone with ill intent were to target students of this school they wouldn't have been able to kidnap so many without being caught. So the only logical answer is that those students, for a reason I don't know yet, willingly decide to escape from home."
I try to smile, but somehow my lips refuse to move in the right way. So I set for a curt nod. "I hope you're right."
I step outside fully and leave.
====
Eventually I finish cleaning everything, with a few hours to spare before sunset even. Sadly neither me nor Mikazuki managed to find hint, or a trace.
'Mikazuki?'
'Still thinking, still thinking...' He replies. I can almost picture gears spinning in his brain, or its Madogu equivalent.
I sigh and sit down. I take out and stare at my Madou Lighter. "Maybe I should use it..."
"Thank you! Just what I needed." A cheerful voice says before a hand snatches the Lighter from my hands. I blame my mind thinking too deeply for my slow reaction.
Looking up I find the culprit is a young woman around my age with jet black hair, a curious purple dye on the lower section, and purple eyes. She uses my Lighter to light up a cigarette. "No way! The fire is purple!" She exclaims with delight. "I thought it was just a silly prop, but it's all metal!"
She turns to me, the flame still burning, and I take the chance to gaze into her eyes to see if they react. "Where did you-" Her eyes reflect the purple flame normally, no signs of her being a Horror.
Relaxing I notice she stopped: I hope I didn't come across as creepy. I hold out my hand. "Excuse me, can I have my lighter back?"
"Uh..Sure!" She replies with a bright smile before putting it in my hand. Good, I didn't scare her. "Where did you buy it? I want one too."
"This? It was a gift." Better to go for the edited truth. "Handmade or something. Sorry, I can't help you." I shrug. "I don't even smoke."
"Then give it to me!" She cheerfully demands.
"No can do." I smile apologetically. "It's still a gift, and I respect the one it came from too much."
She pouts in response. She takes a long drag from the cigarette and blow the smoke in the air before looking back at me. "Alright. But! As compensation, you must do me two favors!"
"If they are reasonable, I will."
"They are, they are. First!" She raises a single finger. "You tell nobody you saw me smoking, and if asked you lie your ass off. It's not something my family approves."
"Okay." I nod. "And the second?"
"You work here, right? Then you must take me where Yo-chan teach!"
I raise an eyebrow. "And who would this 'Yo-chan' be?"
She chuckles. "Sorry, sorry. Her full name is Miyahara Yo, she was my senior when we both studied here. She started teaching here and called me today for a meeting."
Oh, that teacher. "This is my first day working here but I saw where she taught a class. Assuming she hasn't moved to a different classroom..." I stand up and adjust my cape. "Still, a promise is a promise. Allow me to assist you until we find your friend."
She smiles before smoking again. Then she holds out her hand. "Haruno Yukinoshita."
I shake her hand. "Tetsuya Kurogane."
====
I wait for Haruno to finish her cigarette (I have her put it and the ash inside an empty can I'll throw away later) before we both enter the main building. "So Kurogane-kun!" She begins as we walk side by side. "You said this is your first day of work?"
"Yes: apparently the last janitor stopped coming without warning and they needed a substitute."
"I also heard there have been...students missing?"
"I also heard it, but I know next to nothing." For now. If there is a Horror I must find it before it can make more victims. "Do you, perhaps, have a relative studying here Yu..." I turn around to look at her, but trails off when my eyes meet her own.
She blinks and tilts her head. "Something's wrong?"
"No." I scratch my head. "It's just that for a moment your eyes were really cold." I bow. "My apologies, I must have said something that upset you."
"Oh no no no! Not at all!" When I look up she's waving her hand with a grin, eyes closed. "It's true my younger sister studies here, but she hasn't disappeared. And I doubt she would: our parents take our safety very seriously, and assigned to each of us a private car with chauffeur."
"That's good to hear. I hope for this incident to be resolved soon, so everyone will be able to sleep serenely." If I'm lucky, it will end before the next sunrise. At that moment we arrives where I saw Miyahara Yo teaching a class. "There, I saw your friend in this class."
Haruno steps forward and opens the door. The classroom is empty, except for the redhead teacher sitting on the desk. "Yo-chan!"
"Haruno. You came." The teacher smiles, but something's not right. Is that...truly the smile of someone who meet an old friend? "Please come in, we have much to talk about."
"Uh uh!" Haruno nods before looking at me. "Thank you for guiding me Kurogane-kun! I hope to see you again!"
I smile. "Likewise. Stay safe Yukinoshita-san."
I leave the two friends alone, though something keeps gnawing at me. But what?
====
Despite my best intentions sunset arrives without no progress in the investigation. Sitting on a bench near the entrance I ponder on what to do next while the last students leave the school.
'Maybe the school is not where the Horror is hiding, just a place where to choose its next prey. Does it mean that it attacks the students while they're going home, or in their ho-'
"What do you mean you don't know where Nee-san is?!" A yell interrupts my thoughts. Looking to the side I see the ebony haired girl of the Service Club yelling at a guy in a suit sweating profusely.
"It's the truth Yukino-sama. I brought Haruno-sama here to meet with an old friend, but she never came back." He explains. Haruno? So, that girl must be the little sister. "She doesn't answer her phone, and when I asked her friend she told me she never showed up."
Wait. That is a lie: I saw them meeting with my own eyes.
"I swear, it's like she disappeared!"
Di...sappeared? Like the students?
"The last one stopped coming without warning when the disappearances began."
No, in the first place: why did I assume only students vanished without a trace?!
'I GET IT!' Mikazuki, who until now was silent, suddenly yells.
'The paintings! Tetsuya, we need to check the paintings!'
'For what?'
'No time to explain! Do it!'
[] Check the closest painting
[] Check the classroom where you last saw Haruno
[] Write-in
====
Was my attempt into creating a mystery atmosphere successful?
