As the gentle breeze blows and another chapte–day comes by. Like usual, Madoka lets out a sigh, but this time not out of relief; no, this time it's out of a heavy burden. However, this burden stems from an all-too-familiar problem—the plot. Or, at least one that lives in his mind, according to a therapist. But he never continued the session, a free trial is a free trial after all.
Whilst nearing the gates, Madoka froze, making a midstep forward instead of a turn to the gate. Within the crowd of heads, a certain student stood out. Head full of snow white hair, Hiroka stood by the entrance, in front of a plaque of the school's emblem, glancing at the crowd. Lilac-colored gaze occasionally turned and paused.
'Oh,' Madoka thought, staring for bits of a second before rearing himself to the right, 'Has he finally found his fellow cast member?' He sighed mentally, 'That's good, it would be bad if I get dragged into more semi-familiar messes. Now, I just have to hope that this person isn't a new transfer student…'
Madoka continued his walk to the gate, his head up high, and a weight finally lifted from his shoulder. Only to be interrupted by a "Good morning!"
'Great, ' Madoka thought, the mental words even sounded like they were spoken through his gritted teeth. A venom that sadly can't ever be spit. He turns to Hiroka, the slight upturn of his lips gone, and says, "Morning, Fujikawa."
'Of course, he was looking for me.' Madoka complained, not even giving himself time to second-guess whether he was wrong. Clearly, Hiroka was looking for him, Madoka. The very one who thought, 'hey, how amazing, a new cast member,' a quick acceptance that came from his own distorted, sad hope, as if some sort of god out there would grace him with a even more sudden appearance of a new character. If said god wanted it, then half the cast should have been there the day Hiroka transferred! And sure, he has complained about the mundane during his first week of being plot-free, but at least the troubles during those times were caused by him!
"Is it okay if we can go to class together?" Hiroka asked, and Madoka nodded dimly, answering, "Oh, okay."
'What a plot twist,' Madoka thought sarcastically, initiating a slouch to subtly express his saddened mood.
"Thanks, I knew I could count on you." Madoka subconsciously nodded, 'Usually, I'm not the first in the cast…'
'Maybe, it'll just take a while for them to transfer over,' Madoka thought, turning a deaf ear to what Hiroka was talking about. 'Hopefully, not one by one, it'd be quite troublesome for me, since I have quite a high likelihood of being the one touring them. Even more so if they're familiar with Hiroka already.'
'Whatever, in the end, murder is bad, and if investigation and murder mystery are their main genre, then so be it,' Madoka thought, finally accepting his fate before glancing over at Hiroka, mind drifting to his prior reaction to the rumors. The way he was sweating buckets, no, a river, or even an ocean? Concerning the salt concentration in a human's sweat… Could it be viable, or might tears be needed? And how many salt fields could this theoretical human ocean make? One? Two? Or would it be a much better way to optimize this barbaric salt-making system?
'Ah, what was I thinking? Oh, right, with his reaction, he seemed too skittish and scared. Maybe he's a Watson?—The audience's eyes. Then we would need to be a more level-headed one. But there's already a mystery, and they're not here. It could be a break-in by a mystery-solving obsessed maniac instead of a transfer, but for now…Hopefully it won't be me.'
"Is that fine?" Hiroka asked as they entered the classroom.
"Yep." Madoka nodded. 'Overall, I should just help when needed. If I'm lucky, then it'll just be a duo with me as a minor recurring character.'
'Wait a second, ' Madoka paused, hand still pulling his chair. Then, as he sat, he realized, 'What did I agree to?'
————————————————————
"So I was thinking," Hiroka starts, his voice light as he drags out the end, "That, maybe, I could live in the school's abandoned dorm."
He pauses shortly afterwards, "I-is it okay if you show me around the place?" his stutters are gone as his voice stabilizes. "Is that fine?"
"Yep," Madoka responded. An odd combination of yes and yup that slipped his tongue.
"Thanks!"
————————————————————
'I agreed to another exposition…' Madoka thought in defeat, his head hung low in his imagination.
Madoka glances up in dismay as if to voice his opinion to a higher being, as if light would shine from above. He mumbles to himself, "...The plot is cruel."
Hiroka looked up and stared oddly at the ceiling, the ravennete was glaring at. "When should we start the dorm touring?"
"Depends on when you're moving. As well as, if the school agrees." Madoka replied, glancing at Hiroka, only to find him staring at the ceiling in place of him.
"Good point." Hiroka nodded, leaning back against his chair.
"You're not in a hurry?"
"Kinda, yeah"
Madoka gazes up at the ceiling, which was white and plain; for all he knows, it could be eggshell white or bone white.
Hiroka continued, "I sort of wanted to prove myself, that's all." An odd, breathy chuckle escapes him, "Even had a fight about it with my sister."
He leans onto one hand as he gazes up, "I really can take care of myself."
"There is more to me than just-"
He cut himself off, staring blankly at the washed-up white.
"..."
'...Maybe, I should've given him my window seat.' Madoka glanced to his left, where the sun set with an orange-red egg yolk hue.
"..."
"Mhm." The ravenette makes a noise of affirmation, a beat off. "I guess I could understand."
Madoka raises a brow, "Your sister's always the one leading, isn't she?"
"...she always had a ton of responsibility, a-and-" Hiroka abruptly stopped, turning his head to Madoka, "We should pay attention to the lesson!"
"Sure–" "Wada-kun, answer the question on the board! And you, I would've asked you to answer it if you weren't new! So next time, pay attention!"
'Right, this was the part where I would get interrupted. But I didn't even say 'Wait, why the change in-' nor did I lightly frown as I glanced in concern, hand on the verge of giving an awkward pat to coax him. So why is it do I still get called up?!' Madoka lampooned as he went on the board to answer the question. Only to walk back to the desk to find Hiroka staring at the ceiling once more.
"Wada-kun, can you explain…that?" He asked, pointing at the board.
This was a revision. Not only that, it was the basics.
Hiroka should've learned it a month or two ago.
Madoka choked a sob, 'Where is the smart student council archetype when you need them?'
————————————————————
Meanwhile, deep within a forest.
"Achooooo!–" sniffle sniffle
"...Maybe, I should've listened to the brat and taken a break," a strained voice mumbled. ————————————————————
After a major headache from a tutoring session, the bell rang. But today, Madoka cannot embrace its message of freedom…and food.
Sulking in his heart, Madoka went to the teacher's desk. He gave a light knock on the desk when he saw her, checking the papers. "Ando-sensei, there's something Fujikawa-kun and I would like to ask."
"What is it?" Ando-sensei questioned, looking up from the papers, "Is there something you didn't understand?"
She looked at Madoka, "If you have something you don't understand, ask Wada-kun."
"..." 'No, please don't. I have a sense of self now.'
"Well, actually, it's about the club rooms," Hiroka responded with a smile, two-part awkward, and endearing.
"Oh? Has a club interested you already?" Ando-sensei perked up, "That's good, it will make socializing with your peers much easier. Since your interests line up."
"Well–no, actually it's about a certain clubroom…"
"Just the clubroom?" The teacher asks once more, eyes squinting as she tries to make sure what she's hearing is true.
Hiroka nodded, and an exasperated groan escaped the teacher, "No, you can't enter the music club room."
"Huh?! Uhm, I w-was not…"
"Yes, you were", Ando-sensei rubbed her temple, tossing a glare at Madoka, " Wada-kun, you're supposed to give him a tour, not to tell him gossip."
"…he kept looking at the club," Madoka tried to defend.
"Or, he could just be looking at aclub!"
"Right, sorry, Ando-sensei, I won't do it again," Madoka apologized, "I will ensure this won't happen again." 'So, please don't make me tour the next transfer student.'
"Uh, but why can't we borrow the key to that club?" Hiroka raises his hand, hesitating as he does so, unsure whether it's needed.
The teacher sighed, but eventually softened as she explained, "It's because certain students keep on sneaking into…certain areas. At first, they asked for keys, and at the time I didn't know why, but I agreed, assuming they had left something there."
"But as the frequency of requests increased, I got curious, and it turned out plenty of students were hiding out there to 'investigate' that student's disappearance." A sourness tinges the edge of her voice as a self-depricating chuckle escapes her, "Though, yes, the police have gotten tips about certain deaths in this neighborhood and school. These are just students, handling a mess that in no way involves them. They don't even have the intelligence for it, as well. Surely, it's not wrong for me to stop them when there's no progress made. Even the police had tried investigating it, and they got nothing."
"Oh," Mumbled Hiroka, his brow furrowed, and mouth frowning slightly in thought. With a slight grimace to it.
"Oh," Mumbled Hiroka again, as his brow loosened, an expected unease gone. If anything, he seemed calmer, with his tense shoulder loosening. An expression of acceptance formed on his face. "I see."
"Then we will be going," nodded Madoka, head still angled to Hiroka's direction as he watched his expression. "Thank you for the explanation, sensei. Hope you have a nice day."
"You too," she responded, before glaring at the snow-haired student, "And stay out of trouble, Fujikawa-san."
Hiroka awkwardly nodded as he walked away, stumbling back against a table, before turning and leaving. Madoka followed.
In the hallway, Hiroka apologized, "Sorry for that… I didn't expect a place like that would be so popular."
"It's fine," Madoka countered, walking ahead and causing Hiroka to follow along. "I shouldn't have piqued your curiosity too much."
"Then I shouldn't have stared at it," Hiroka tried to defend the other.
"I shouldn't have paused there for long," Madoka walked past the gym, Hiroka speeding up to his side.
"I shouldn't have commented too much!"
"Then, maybe, I shouldn't have toured you", Madoka spat quietly, finally allowed to say what's on his mind.
"We're here." Madoka stopped in his tracks. Hiroka paused before glancing around.
It was the club, specifically, a side that Hiroka hadn't seen before. The other side was where the more active club members are. 'Art and chess,' Madoka recalled. He chose to lead Hiroka to the more desolate end, where every edge of glass and wood was encased with dust, forever set in the past.
Madoka approached the door. It was locked as usual, but on this end, there was a chain and a lock.
This clubroom was one of the bigger ones. There are two walls inside dividing it into three rooms. The club's side rooms are both equally large, but the middle one was smaller, used as a storage room. The door placement outside was odd; there was one on this side's left and one on the other side's left. Still, he can't be quite sure since this is based on the similar length and width it has to the baking clubroom.
"There are two locks on this side?" muttered Hiroka, surprise present in his voice.
"Mhm," Madoka hummed, reaching into his ponytail.
"How do we get in?" Hiroka pointed out, "Ando-sensei didn't give us the key."
Madoka's finger poked around the edge between his scalp and the ponytail's root. Bits of uneven short hair then fell as he pulled out a bobby pin. "With this."
"?"
Madoka kneels, inserting the bobby pin into the lock. Looking oddly familiar with the motions.
"??"
Click
Madoka dragged aside the chain before working on the door's lock.
Click
"!!!"
Madoka stood up, brushing off light dust from his pants. Before grumbling silently to himself about it. He glanced at the bobby pin, now tinged in dust. 'Ew…', he thought, wrapping it in tissue from his pocket before placing it in his other pants' pocket.
"Let's go", Madoka beckoned, entering the room.
"Uh…" Hiroka walked in, staring back and forth at Madoka and the locks. "Okay"
The room was dark, as expected, with lingering webs and dust draping itself over the area. Specks of motes flew through the air, only visible through the peeking light from a window to the left.
Madoka pulled out his phone as he watched Hiroka wander around.
"There seem to be fewer instruments here," Hiroka said, hands rummaging through, based on the crinkling sound that followed, a pile of papers.
Madoka turns on his phone's flashlight, flashing it at Hiroka's hand in the process. He shone the light around the room. Hiroka was right, there was only a guitar and a violin here, which was much less than what he had seen in that tiny glimpse behind the curtain.
Madoka turns his phone to Hiroka's hand, the flipping of papers still continuous. "Piano scores?"
"It's not for the guitar or the violin?" asked Hiroka, hands pausing.
"No, guitars have tabs as well under or over the line." Madoka points at the treble clef, "This is only for the middle to higher pitch. Usually, a violin sheet always uses a treble clef, since violins are a higher-pitched instrument, but because there's both treble clef and bass clef, it's presumably for piano."
Hiroka nodded, glancing at the nearby music note stand.
"We could check the other room's piano. Some parts of the score aren't finished." Madoka glanced at the many blotches of ink, mini notes, and corrections all over the score. "Seems like an original."
"We could do that tomorrow," Hiroka suggested, glancing at the ravenette's phone, "Lunch is ending soon."
"Mhm," Madoka nods. Then as the snow-haired shuffled through the music sheets something fell from in between.
It was a pamphlet, 'Die Entführung aus dem Serail' it read, front and center.
"Die Ent…something something Seral?"
"It's probably German," Madoka responded, glancing at the particularly long second word. He picked the pamphlet up, flipping through it only to end up pausing when he saw the first page. "Never mind, it's definitely German."
"Is it a theatre play, or a musical?" Hiroka asked, leaning over for a closer look at a photo of the actors on stage.
Madoka shrugged, clicking his tongue when he took an accidental glimpse at the time. "Let's split and look for a clue. Anything related to the music club should count. But it's unlikely we'd find anything too useful since the cops did investigate this room before us."
So, they rummaged through the clubroom. From high and low, the cupboard and the cabinets. In the end, they ended up empty-handed, at least to Madoka they did. Hiroka found a photo of the club members. It was a well-known photo, used in articles, on the school's social media page, and copies were even made and stuck onto the missing student's locker before they cleaned it up for the new semester. Probably because this was the last physical proof of where she was.
A goodbye celebration from a group of friends. Such a sweet photo it was.
"Which one is the missing student?" asked Hiroka, glancing at the photo's back.
"The one with a side ponytail and bow, there in the middle," Madoka answered, "Her name was Kawano Yukina. Considering that she's the club's main singer it's likely that the pamphlet is hers."
Hiroka nodded, showing Madoka the back of the photograph, "This seems to be hers."
On it, written in four different handwritings were well-meaning wishes and congratulations to Kawano Yukina. Hiroka points at a distinct messy handwriting among the others, then at the piano scores. "It's the same handwriting."
"There should be around fifteen members in the music club at that time." Madoka nodded, "So, that crosses out a lot of members."
"We should get going now. Lunch is ending soon," the snow-haired student suggested.
"But—" RING RING
'EVERY TIME!! Why is it always me with the constant interruptions!!'Madoka cried out before comforting himself, ' At least, I said 'But—' this time, so, it was kind of called for.'
"Then we'll investigate again tomorrow?" Asked Hiroka, as he left the club first. Standing there, watching Madoka lock the room once more.
"Mhm,"
————————————————————
At the end of school, Hiroka waved goodbye to Madoka, but as the words left him stopped. His eyes darted around before he turned back and hurriedly exclaimed, "I-I forgot something!"
Madoka waved dismissively as he watched Hiroka's back growing smaller and smaller. It was oddly timed, too. 'Oh well,' he shrugged, glancing down at the pamphlet in his hand, rubbing the light creases from years under those sheets of paper. Held in his other hand was his phone. 'An opera, huh, guess there's some truth to the 'E6 note' portion of the rumor.'
————————————————————
Meanwhile, in the music clubroom, a break-in occurred.
Crash!—
"..."
"...ow"
"...I really should've left that window unlocked."