Chereads / Pilgrims/Ascent / Chapter 28 - Solitude & Shadows - The Final Investigation I

Chapter 28 - Solitude & Shadows - The Final Investigation I

Kazura Machi was Ariyama's closest friend, and so he loved her, in a platonic kind of way. As such, he liked her.

Still, she was being really annoying when she forced herself into Ariyama's mission, and wouldn't take no for an answer. The only way to deter her would be to reveal the truth, but that would definitely either land Ariyama in magic jail, or get him magically executed. 

All in all, he was irritated.

And the irritation only grew when Genichirou Shoei of all people appeared out of nowhere and ended up joining him too.

As Ariyama gave in and tried to explain – in the most simple way, leaving no room to ask questions that may lead to the unveiling of the truth – the basics of his plan to Kazura, he got a tap on his shoulder.

The two were currently discussing it in the one place Matsune had deemed safe: the backroom. And since Ariyama wasn't too confident in his own decision-making skills, he decided to go by her example. 

However, it seemed luck wasn't on his side, as the door to the backroom was opened and Genichirou Shoei sauntered in, his face twisting in meager shock as he realized Ariyama and Kazura also occupied the room.

"Oh, shit, my bad guys. Ijichi-sensei told me to go find a spare whiteboard marker, and I just happened to find this place. I'll just leave and let you two get back to making babies."

Ariyama stumbled over his words as Kazura stared wide-eyed at Genichirou.

"Oh, um, nah. We're now doing that. Actually, we're discussing a thing we're doing together later this evening."

"Oh sick, is it gender-neutral?"

"What? I mean… Kazura's a girl and I'm a guy, so I guess so?"

"Awesome. Can I swing by and join you guys? It's just that I've been dead bored the last few days in the evenings. No one's been inviting me out for parties or anything, and I'm really upset about it."

At another person asking to join, Ariyama winced with annoyance.

"Yeah, sorry dude, but there's only really need for two–"

"Sure you can!"

Ariyama looked at Kazura, who was smiling at Genichirou sweetly.

"Hey, I'll send you the info later after school, 'kay? We can all meet up this evening."

Genichirou winked at her.

"You're the best, Kazura. Alright, I'll catch you later, Ariyama!"

With a pep in his step, Genichirou sauntered back out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Aghast, Ariyama glared at Kazura.

"Machi, what the heck was that all about–"

At the sultry smile on her face, along with the pink blush dusting her cheeks, Kazura made Ariyama stop mid-sentence.

"Huh?"

"Woah. Ariyama, Genichirou-kun is just so hot, isn't he?"

Ariyama fought the will to facepalm on the spot.

And thus, Genichirou was begrudgingly added to Ariyama's plan. He was starting to regret letting Kazura intrude on his work. If she hadn't been there, Genichirou wouldn't have been added either.

The gist of Ariyama's plan was that he planned on actually entering the school itself that night, to check on a few things. Namely, any place that the hooded man had been. Matsune had said something before about linking the patches of foreign mana she found to the same frequency as whoever, leading to the reveal of the culprit.

However, she hadn't mentioned anything about connecting the aura of the hooded man to any of the excess mana. Probably because she was too busy trying not to die. 

So, Ariyama reckoned that, since he was able to use mana detection at a much more stable level now, he could hopefully find more intricate and faint levels of aura around the school. Since it was impossible to do that while there were tons of people during school hours, or even soon after school closed, due to the risk of being caught by people staying back for clubs or cleaners or others.

As a result, the only adequate time was after dark when the only risk was sounding the alarms.

But it just so happened that Genichirou had noticed that there was a backdoor near the backroom Matsune always used, which luckily had no alarms connected to it, meaning that if it just so happened to be burst down randomly during the night, the only sound would be the hinges snapping under the pressure.

Ariyama also didn't believe it, just because of how unbelievably convenient it was, but when Genichirou showed it was genuine during the day, all his worries washed away

With that, his plan was ready.

The three of them met up outside the school gate, staying close by the woods. The wind was howling in their ears and sending chills through Ariyama's body, as it had a week prior during the encounter with the hooded man. 

"So, what exactly are we here for again? You said you'd explain once we got here, and now we've got here."

That was Genichirou, as he sidled up beside Ariyama as he crouched near a bush, gazing intently at the school. He had wanted himself to look like he was deep in though, concocting the perfect idea. But in reality, he was just psyching himself up for his first solo mission. Well, it was supposed to be a solo mission, before Kazura and Genichirou rudely invaded. Now, Ariyama had to ensure the two of them weren't put into harm's way, which wouldn't happen as long as the hooded man didn't show up that night.

As such, on one hand, Ariyama both did and didn't want the unregistered Tribute to show up. He did, so he could prove his worth to Matsune and not let her down, but he also didn't, as that'd mean Genichirou and Kazura would be in grave danger. 

Ariyama had brought his sword, of course, but judging from the first fight with the hooded man, he doubted he could do much more than hold him off for a little bit.

So, in other words, those two being there really screwed over the plan. And what was worse was the fact Ariyama had to come up with a totally invalid reason to come there at last. It wasn't like he could tell them he was breaking into the school to scan the area for traces of aura with his mana detection skill that he'd been learning for the past three weeks straight.

So, the supposed 'plan' that he'd came up with was as follows:

"So, basically, Yasuke and I were planning this thing for a while. Basically, it's a kind of prank on Ijichi-sensei. At night, we break into his classroom and draw some lewd artwork on his board. Then in the morning, we'd act completely innocent to our classmates until Ijichi arrived and then blew the whole room down with fury. I know it's not mature in the slightest, but I wanted to do it. In remembrance of Yasuke"

Dammit, he really did hate using his friend's death and supposed 'unfinished plan' as a scapegoat to complete his own mission. It tore relentlessly through his guts when he first came up with it, but what else was he to do? He couldn't think of anything else that would genuinely make sense.

"Wow, I knew Yasuke-kun was a rebel, but I never thought he'd have thought up something this diabolical!"

Kazura skipped over to the two of them happily. It was good to see she wasn't dwelling on Yasuke as much as Ariyama was. No, that wasn't fair. She most definitely was, but was probably hiding it deep down as well.

Ariyama faked a smile, moving his gaze from Genichirou to the approaching Kazura.

"Yeah, it was gonna be his biggest hit yet. I really wasn't planning on helping, but now I want to honor him by doing it. Now, enough of the why. Time to get to the how. Genichirou, you showed us that door which had no alarms triggered to it. Is it still possible to do the same thing we did earlier today?"

Genichirou flashed him a dazzling smile of white teeth. The smile wasn't even directed at her, but Kazura looked about ready to pounce on the tall blonde.

"Yup, chief, all systems are ready to go."

"Nice. Alright you two, ready to head in. One last thing: I do want to be the one to do the deed, so if you'd just stick close to me and not wander off, that'd be great. After all, I don't wanna get caught, so the second I'm done, I'm boring it out of there."

That one was actually true in both ways. In the case that Ariyama finished the main detection and came up empty, he was sprinting it out as fast as possible. This place was seriously giving him weird vibes.