That day when the last bell rings, the students dash out of the school like a swarm of bees. While in the classroom of Class 3-1, six of the boys are still packing their things up. It seems like they are waiting for each other so they could go somewhere together.
"Let's go, let's go!" patting on Genshiro and Tetsu's bouncy hips, Kaito rushes like a captain, "It's time to go get some attention from our precious kouhai!" or perhaps, like a pervert.
"We are just going to play basketball, don't make it sound so cheap." with a sigh, Iries shakes his head and rebuked.
Then, Genshiro suddenly raises his hand and suggests, "We'll go get some ice after basketball!"
"Sansei desu!" jumping up and down in excitement, Momo claps his hands and agrees, "I love ice!"
"Let's go, Shinji!" wrapping his arm around Shinji's neck, Tetsu cheers, "Time for some basketball!"
"Ah, gomen. I'm not going today." while unexpectedly, Shinji rejected their invitation.
"EH!?"
Agitatedly, the boys gasp, striking a shocking face at him. Indeed, Shinji never missed outdoor activities, everybody knows how much he likes to run and sweat in excitement.
Coming close to Shinji, Momo pats on his back, he asks, "Why are you not coming? Shinji, are you not feeling well?"
Genshiro runs to Shinji too, he leans close and whispers at him, "Or are you dating someone?"
"NANI!?" while unfortunately, Kaito heard it. Slapping on Shinji's desk, Kaito reproaches, "Izaki Shinji! How dare you not tell us! Who is it? Is she kawaii? Does she have kawaii friends? Are they single?"
"No! I'm not dating anyone, calm down!" with a chuckle, Shinji clears his name, he then quickly searches over his mind and comes up with an excuse, "I have some errands to run, you know, Okachan, bills, chores."
"Ah, that can't be helped if it's an 'Okachan' situation." Irie sighs and said, he waves his hand, "Hurry up and go home, Shinji. Okachan is waiting for you."
Kaito pouts his lips and waves his hand too, "Yeah, one person makes no difference."
Genshiro follows too, "Go home, go home. You can join tomorrow's game."
With a chuckle, Shinji nods, "Promise." if only he is not going to be caught up with the investigation.
"We'll get going then." patting on Shinji's shoulder, Tetsu reminds, "Be careful on your way home."
"Call us if you need help!" there, Momo offered his help.
"Good to have you, boys." with a nod, Shinji says, "Enjoy your game."
"Bye bye, Shinji!" waving their hands, the boys greet before they leave the classroom.
"Bye bye." with a bright smile, Shinji waved and greeted back at them.
As soon as the boys left the classroom, Shinji quickly grabs his classic black flip phone out of his pocket. He flips it open and checks his mailbox, there, he receives a text. It is from Wataru.
"Meet me in my room, I've prepared lunch." that's what he wrote in the message.
Sneering at the phone, Shinji thought the text could be taken wrongly, it looks like a message that people will only receive from their girlfriends.
However, since he had prepared the meal, it would be a waste if Shinji is not eating. Hence, as he thought, he quickly packs his things up and carries his bag over the shoulders, he then leaves the empty classroom and proceeds to the teacher's dormitory.
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As Shinji arrives at Wataru's room, Shinji opens the door unreservedly and leans onto the frame staring at Wataru's back.
Lazily, he asks, "What's for lunch?" craning his neck out, he tries to look for the dishes.
"Lunch?" while in a shocking face, Wataru turns to Shinji and asks, "You haven't taken your lunch?"
"HAH?" sneering at Wataru, Shinji chides, "Didn't you say you prepared lunch?"
"Of course I said that in the mail." with a chuckle, Wataru shakes his head, "It's just a cover-up. You don't want others to know we are actually investigating a mass slaughter case together, don't you?" he then teases him, "Thought you're smart, so you're not, huh?"
"Tsk." rolling his eyes, Shinji clicks his tongue, "Whatever."
There, Wataru tosses a pack of Taiyaki at Shinji, "Eat this if you're hungry." he said.
Just as Shinji fetches the Taiyaki in his hand, he quickly opens it up and muches the head of the Taiyaki off. It looks like he is really hungry.
"Just get to the point." as he munches, Shinji asks, "How do you want to investigate?"
As he heard Shinji, Wataru says, "Take a look at this. I found it in the storage room during recess break."
Wataru draws a piece of newspaper out from within the students' books, he passes it to Shinji. The newspaper is small, or to say, it is just a corner teared down from a complete piece of newspaper. It is all crumpled and dusty, just like it has been through a hundred years in the chicken's nest.
Shinji pinches on the corner of the dirty newspaper with his fingers, trying not to let the rest of him stained with the dirt. There, he first opens up the newspaper releasing it from the creases, then, he takes a glance at the news. Although it is just a small corner from the newspaper, there isn't too much news exposing on it, but the date written on the left corner changes Shinji's perception.
Year 1996, Heisei Era 8th year, April 18th.
There, on the upper left corner of the newspaper, a short news was written, there were not many words, probably just a few lines. The news was written as below.
"It has been three days since the mass disappearing case happened in Eitsuma Middle School is reported, the parents of Class 1-1's students once again showed up at the Nagasaki Police Station requesting the police to take action and investigate.
Three days ago, the students attended school at Eitsuma Middle School as usual, but according to the parents, the students haven't yet come home since then.
According to the police, the police have sealed up the building where the classroom of Class 1-1 is located for a full investigation. New clues or situations will be announced once found."
This is a news from the 18th, the case was reported three days ago, on the 15th. That means the students had been missing since the 15th. They could be murdered on the same day, or any other day after the 15th.
With a strong chill running down his spine, Shinji can't help but give a short shiver.
Throwing the newspaper back at Wataru, Shinji asks in curiosity, "How did you find this? It's twenty-years-old. The school is keeping such old newsprints?"
"It's a coincidence. Or you can say it's meant to be found." Wataru said, "All of the old newspapers were gone, this is the only one I found, it was wrapped around the foot of a table in the storage room."
Hoping to get more leads, Shinji asks, "Did you find any other newspaper around this period? Related to this mass disappearing case."
Unfortunately, Wataru shakes his head, "No."
There, Shinji pouts his lips at the bad news, "Maybe we should check it on the internet then." he grabs his phone out of his pocket and waves it in the air, he says, "My old-hag-phone doesn't have a net browsing feature. How about yours?"
Pointing at his laptop bag with his chin, Wataru proposes, "We can use my laptop. But we have to travel down the town, connections are weak here."
Raising his eyebrows, Shinji shows a curious expression, "Where are we going?" he asked, "You driving?"
"I don't have a car." while unfortunately, Wataru has to let Shinji down, again, he proposes, "But if we're just going to the nearest cafe, your bicycle should be fine."
"No." immediately, Shinji rejected, "Saya is single seated." Saya is his only bicycle, he won't let anyone destroy her, especially this heavy grown man.
"Then we won't be going out." shrugging his shoulders, Wataru sighs, "We won't be able to reach the cafe and return from it before the sky turns dark if we're walking."
Indeed, a school located in the woods and under the mountain foot, how strong could the connections and signals be? The kids who are studying here are from poor families, they might not need it living their lives if they are comfortable with being mediocre, but when cases are different, like right now, they will need to travel to the cafe nearby down the neighboring compound, most of the time, they travel with their bicycles. Whereas for the grown ups like the teachers, if one of them owns a car, they would gather after class and travel down by the car.
Now, this young teacher owns no car, and if they are not riding Shinji's bicycle, they will not be able to investigate the case and find out the truth.
Shinji has rejected his friends to play basketball today, it would be a waste if he is going to do nothing for the rest of the day. Furthermore, Shinji is a person driven by curiosity, sometimes, his curiosity can help him solve some issues, such as this one.
"Fine, fine! I'll ride you with Saya! I'll ride you! Are you happy now?"
With a bright chuckle, Wataru nods his head, "See?" he teases, "Not so hard, isn't it?"