Among the many surprised faces was that of a first year student, Ishigami Yu.
He was sitting alone on a bench in the corridor, headphones on, gaming with one hand while quietly observing everything happening around campus with the other. Shuchiin's unofficial information broker, no flutter of movement ever escaped those sharp eyes hidden beneath his dark bangs.
Weird…
Yu's gaze locked onto the strange little group.
The student council's Vice President Shinomiya, and that famous first year gal, Hayasaka. Those two pretty much never interact on campus, so why are they walking together? And… Hayasaka-senpai looks seriously off…
And the two behind them… that guy is stupidly handsome, and the other one… is a grade schooler? What kind of party is this?
Curiosity got the better of him, and Ishigami slipped off his headphones and trailed after them at a careful distance.
The group finally stopped in front of the first years' classroom building.
Kaguya took a deep breath, as if steeling herself for a major decision, then slid open the door of a classroom where students were quietly studying.
Her presence instantly silenced the room, and every student bent over their books went rigid on the spot, hardly daring to breathe.
"Sorry to interrupt," Kaguya said in her cold, emotionless voice. "I want to verify something. About the 'Midnight Game' rumor that has been spreading around school recently, does anyone know where it first came from?"
For Ai's sake, she had chosen to set aside her pride and directly question the people she least wanted to owe anything to.
Silence.
The classroom fell utterly still.
The students looked at one another, but no one dared to be the first to speak.
In the end, a bespectacled boy forced himself to raise his hand, voice trembling as he pointed toward a corner of the room.
"Vice President… when it comes to rumors on campus… if you ask Ishigami, he would probably know best."
In an instant, every gaze in the room swung toward the boy who had been pretending to read while trying to stay invisible
The very same first year "know it all" who had been watching them from the hallway just moments ago, Ishigami Yu.
Being singled out like that, Yu's body stiffened, his face turning pale.
Under Kaguya's intense stare, he had no choice but to slowly stand up.
"I, Ishigami Yu… hello, Vice President."
"Good," Kaguya started to speak, but Natsume cut in first, his voice gentle and reassuring as he smoothly redirected the conversation.
"Ishigami-kun, hello. We would like to know if you have noticed anything strange about the Midnight Game rumor."
Perhaps because Natsume's attitude was far more approachable than Kaguya's, Ishigami's nerves loosened a little. He pushed up his glasses and spoke in his usual slightly gloomy tone, laying out a crucial inconsistency.
"…The spread of this rumor is too fast, to the point of being abnormal."
"In just one or two days, it felt like everyone in the first year already knew about it. That shouldn't be possible. Even using social media, it wouldn't spread that perfectly."
Natsume gave a small nod.
This gloomy looking boy had a sharper eye than most people.
Natsume could tell he still knew more, but with Kaguya present and the classroom full of people, Ishigami did not dare say the rest.
"There are too many people here," Natsume suggested. "Ishigami-kun, could we trouble you to come outside so we can talk in more detail?"
"Ah… y, yes!"
The chance to escape this suffocating public execution was something Ishigami welcomed with all his heart, and he hurried to follow them into the hallway.
Out in the quiet corridor, he shot Natsume a grateful look. Finally free to speak, he shared the last, most critical piece of information.
"This story did not spread person to person."
"From what I found, it first appeared in Class A. One moment, none of them knew it, and the next, every single student seemed to know the rumor at exactly the same time. It was like… someone had just poured the story straight into all their heads at once."
Hearing that, Kaguya reached the obvious conclusion almost immediately.
"…The teacher?"
She frowned.
"That is impossible. Class A's homeroom teacher is the academy's most senior classical literature instructor, someone deeply respected by everyone. He has absolutely no reason to feed the class a ridiculous ghost story like that."
"No, it is very possible."
Natsume's calm voice cut across her denial, cutting across her words.
After countless encounters with the supernatural, he had no reason to doubt this line of reasoning.
He glanced at Kaguya's stubborn expression, still clinging to "science," and the corner of his mouth curved in the faintest hint of amusement.
"Kaguya-san, it looks like we disagree."
"On one hand, you believe there is no way the teacher is involved."
"On the other, I believe the teacher is exactly where this all began."
"So," he said, turning his eyes toward the teachers' office at the end of the hall, "why do we not go and ask him ourselves, right now?"