Kenneth made his way to the club room after class the following day. Catherine was already inside the clubroom sorting through the evidence box Miss Rowena handed to them a day ago. "You're early," Kenneth said. "I'm the president of the club. Of course, I have to come early. Besides, I'm the one holding the key to the clubroom." Catherine said without taking her eyes off the documents. "Wow, that's new." Kenneth replied. He took the seat next to Catherine and went through the summary they made. "Miss Rowena did mention it yesterday. But you dozed off, remember?" Catherine pointed out. "Right…" Kenneth buried his face in the documents to hide his embarrassment. There was a light knock on the door. And with that, last member of the club arrived. "Miss Rowena won't be joining us today. She's busy with foreign affairs." Catherine announced. "Okay. So how do we proceed with this case, Cap?" Kenneth asked. "Let's re-cap what we have so far. The Midnight Tail first appeared on the Idan Daily about a year ago. But witness accounts of the cat dated back far earlier. That was when the heat of the chase for the Midnight Tail began." Catherine paused for the other two to comment. There were none. She continued. "Regarding the various methods reported trying to capture the cat were booby traps, cages, magical restrains, dimensional prison and gravitational magic." "Right, but none of them worked." Kenneth pointed out. Catherine nodded. "The cat seemed to be able to vanish its way out of each and every trap they set." "Did anyone happened to use nullifying magic to trap it?" Kenneth asked. "There was an article about how the cat seemingly avoided a nullifying field trap. It seemed to be intelligent enough to evade the trap completely." Fray said. "That's interesting," Kenneth murmured to himself.
"Even with the bounty of 300 gold pieces offered, no one managed to catch the elusive feline." Catherine continued. "How sure are we that the cat they were chasing the entire time was one and the same feline?" Kenneth pointed out. "Did anyone of you happen to come across the same question?" "It's a possibility as pointed out by one of the self-acclaimed experts. However, the cat was never seen appearing at two different places simultaneously. Still, it's possible." Fray said. "Next we move on to the most important part in our investigation. 'Why the cat appeared?' 'What was the hidden message it tried to deliver if there was any in the first place." Catherine was at the last sheet of their summaries. "So far we have two most likely theories. One, this whole wild goose chase was an elaborated joke set up by some powerful wizards to show off their magic prowess. Or two this is a conspiracy theory about the Cat Lady Madame Cornelia. She was mentioned in a few articles related to the cat. Some say that the Midnight Tail was one of the many cats she 'experimented' on and somehow got loose. Others speculated that the cat was part of an experiment by the security counsel led by Madame Cornelia. There are hundreds other conspiracy theories out there but most are related to her." "Hmm… The key of solving this mystery lies in her." Kenneth said. "Or we can try to catch the cat ourselves," Fray suggested. "Now that's a good idea. If we catch it, problem solved right?" Kenneth said.
The trio gathered at the old Southern wing of the academy building near midnight. The elusive feline was rumored to be spotted most at the old hallways where the classrooms used to be. From one of the few remaining 'Midnight Hunters', the trio heard the feline was last spotted at the storage room three days back. It didn't take long for them to find the cat though. As the clock struck midnight, a black feline was seen roaming the empty hallway. They tried cornering the cat to a dead end. However, each time they drove the cat to a dead end, it would vanish and reappear again some distance away. Throughout the night they experimented and recreated the traps that were mentioned in the articles. And to their surprise each of them held true to their claims. The cat evaded every single one of the traps! The trio were exhausted after four hours of wild goose chase. When dawn slowly approached, the black cat disappeared for good, leaving no traces of its existence behind. Not even a single strain of fur was found on the floor. "This is definitely way-way harder than I thought it would be," Kenneth was panting hard from all the running. The feline wasn't just a master of disappearing act, it was also extremely agile and fast. Even with Kenneth's Overdrive, he could not catch up with the cat. It was a first in a long time since something had actually out maneuver him. Tired after staying awake through the night, the three members of the Detective Club shuffled their separate ways.
On the evening of the following day, Miss Rowena met her three members in the old club room. "How is the progress?" She went straight to the point. "It's not easy, to say the least." Kenneth said. "The cat is extremely difficult to catch and the clues you gave us are not really leading anywhere." Catherine said. Fray just kept quiet. "That's not true. The clues are sufficient enough if you know where to look. And the cat? It's not really hard to catch it. You all are using your muscles, not your brain. That's why you're gonna end up like everyone else." Miss Rowena replied. "Did anyone ever succeeded in catching the Midnight Tail?" Kenneth asked. "Now won't that be a great mystery?" Miss Rowena winked and waved the trio goodbye. As before, she left the room without another word. "Let's go through our encounters yesterday. Maybe we have missed something." Kenneth suggested. "Kenneth is right, maybe we might have overlooked something." Catherine nodded. The trio recalled their chase with the elusive feline jotting down every single detail while coming up with new strategies.
They waited for when the time moon is full. It was the time when elf's magic was at their peak; when Catherine could create more nullifying field than on normal days. Fray's magic power would be amplified as well but he lacked the skill to form a nullifying field. Among the trio only Catherine had the skills and knowledge to do it. The three of them went through their plan over and over the following three days while awaiting the full moon. Loop holes were covered and plan B-s were formed. However, one thing remained an uncertainty for the trio. "Are you sure this will work?" Cathy questioning Kenneth once again. "Absolutely." Kenneth nodded confidently. "Then, why can't you tell us?" Fray added. "Like I said before, you'll know it once you see it." Kenneth answered. The other two were skeptical about Kenneth's secret weapon which he insisted to keep it a secret from the other two. "Haiz…." Cathy sighed. It was hard to convince the other two at first. But Kenneth eventually did it as they had no other better solutions to offer.
With the traps in place, the trio took their position and waited for the appearance of the Midnight Tail. As soon as they spotted the black feline, Fray chased after it as fast as he could. With his enhancement spells and the full moon, Fray was faster than before. Despite that, the cat was still a few steps a head of him. The cat made a sudden sharp turn to the left upon reaching a diverging passageway. Fray was unable to slow his momentum while attempting to steer himself to the left. He lost his footing and fell in the process. Cathy burst forth from her hiding place as the cat crossed in front of her. She attempted to grab it but the cat somersaulted in mid-air, avoiding her grasp. It then vanished into thin air before reappearing further down the hallway. Kenneth quickly sprang into action as planned. He chased after the cat in his overdrive mode while using his telekinesis to create obstacles. But the cat evaded all his attempts at blockade with ease. The cat was led towards the west side of the building where the nullifying fields Cathy set up was waiting for it. Cathy soon joined Kenneth in the chase, cutting the cat off its escape route. As predicted, the cat stopped at a crossroad. Two of the pathways would lead to a nullifying trap. And the other was blocked by Kenneth and Cathy. The cat leapt to the side while Cathy reached for it and disappeared down the remaining pathway. "Gotcha!" Kenneth said through panted breath. An Arc Net was activated with the push of a button, nullifying all magic and jamming all communications in its vicinity. Fray emerged from one of the classrooms with a net just as the Arc Net fired up.
The end result wasn't quite what they have expected. The thing they caught under the net wasn't a cat but a person. It was someone all of them knew. "The heck?" Kenneth blurted. "Mr. Dickson?" Fray removed the net from their teacher. "Well done," There was a clap echoing from the hallway. The trio turned to find Miss Rowena walking towards them. "Didn't see that coming. Must have been the time I spent here, that I lost touch of the outside world." Mr. Dickson said. "It's been a long time since I have seen one of those." He pointed at the Arc Net. "How did you know that it would work?" He added. "I have a hunch," Kenneth replied. "I have a friend who was a teleporter as well."