I sat helplessly at the back of the class watching Hamu's insidious prank unravel.
Noriko had already started crying like a baby, which attracted a small cadre of interested boys, eager to endear themselves to her.
"What's wrong Noriko?" Eito posed his question as he pulled over a chair and sat close to her.
His presence seemed to hold others at bay, as the gathering crowd converged around him.
"S-she left me!" Noriko sputtered.
"Who left you, Noriko-chan?" Eito asked, his tone gentle and patient.
To answer him, Noriko withdrew an empty white box from her bag and while sniffling, said, "Ayame... her remains were here..."
While Eito was still processing those words, a shrill squeal emerged from the back of the crowd.
The group parted ranks to reveal Minami's petite form.
She had held up a trembling finger, pointing at the floor.
"Look! There's a trail."
Noriko immediately shut off the waterworks and gazed at the thin stream of ash that led to her desk.
She suddenly stood up, causing her chair to fall back and her desk to tumble over and its contents to spill onto the floor.
Noriko's face turned deathly pale as she gawked at a cat shaped outline beneath her. Four conspicuous paw prints were easily distinguishable.
It was as if the cat itself had emerged from the ashes of death and lay sprawled across the floor, before it got up and walked away.
The crowd let out a series of gasps as each student arrived at the same conclusion.
And yet it was Eito who pulled at the string of clues and began to unravel the mystery, "N-Noriko-chan. I think your cat isn't dead. Ayame... this trail... its probably hers."
"Beep-beep boop-beep. Beep-boop-beep." This strange, almost musical sound came from the other end of the class, drawing away the keen attention that Eito's conjecture had absorbed.
Our collective gaze landed on Hiromitsu, who stood aloof, holding a small, odd device in his beefy hands. It was a printed circuit board arrayed with a series of soldered tubes and tiny, blinking LEDs.
I got up from my desk and drew closer to him.
The whole class was then drawn to him like a magnet, but when they got too close he held out a hand to repulse them, "Stay back! If you get too close you'll interfere with my readings."
I wondered whether Hiromitsu's strange device had been factored into Hamu's plan. I casually glanced over my shoulder at Hamu who floated in the air at the center of the class.
She caught my curious look, but merely shrugged her shoulders in response.
After a few moments of eerie silence and the beeping and booping of Hiromitsu's measuring device, he loudly announced, "I think I've locked down Ayame's coordinates. She's somewhere in this building."
The class erupted into a loud chatter, as they discussed his findings. Many even attempted their own guesses as to where Ayame might have fled. A few went as far as searching the classroom, overturning desks and rifling through other people's bags, which led to a good deal of discord.
"Umm... Hiro-chan, why don't we just follow the trail?" Eito tentatively suggested.
Our classmates quickly murmured their assent and began to trace the trail to the classroom door and beyond.
I followed the tail-end of the crowd with Hamu's snarky laughter echoing behind me, "Can you believe these kids? How short can their attention span be?"
As the crowd flowed into the wide hallway, I noticed Hamu sneakily floating outside of my line of sight.
But I could still grasp her presence by the cold, prickling sensation at the back of my neck.
She gripped my shoulders, sending an icy chill into my spine, as she whispered, "Peek-a-boo!"
I involuntary shivered, but still had the wherewithal to immediately whisper back, "What the heck are you planning!?"
"Nothing major. Let's call it a treasure hunt."
"And...?"
"And what?" She asked.
"This treasure of yours. Is it worth anything?"
"Hmm... these days isn't a girl's panties considered a priceless treasure?"
What she said sounded not just funny, but also peculiar.
It took a long moment for me to realize that Hamu didn't actually have any underwear!
How could I forget that she has been stealing my clothes for almost half a decade!?
I felt my jaw grow stiff.
"D-did you plant my boxers somewhere in the girl's washroom?"
"Eeh!? Why would I have anything to do with your filthy shorts? Did you leave evidence at the crime scene? I better go check..."
Before I could question her further, she disappeared through a wall just as the crowd had stopped at the girl's washroom.
A few boys seemed daring enough to enter, but a bunch of girls stared them down until they gave up on the idea.
Most of the girls from our class were unwilling to enter, so eventually Eito managed to talk them into allowing him, Minami who discovered the trail, Hiromitsu with his blinking device and Noriko with her unbridled despair, to go in together.