••●••

'We know what we are, but know not what we may be
— William Shakespeare'

••●••

Everyone's jaw dropped. Including Ayame, the one who barely displayed any emotion at all.

Tadashi couldn't move; the only sound audible was the loud beating of his heart. It was impossible for him to believe his ears, and the rest gathered in the room felt the same.

Ayame stepped toward the cell phone, her violet eyes filled with apprehension. "Wait, Minamoto. What do you—"

"Akira! What the hell are you doing in here?!" a masculine tone of voice bellowed.

Akira's voice gasped in response. "D-Dad!? I-I thought you were out of town for a case in Nagano!"

"I was, but that is clearly not important right now! Why are you going through my files? These are police files! You could get arrested for committing such a crime!" continued her dad, spitting with anger over the other end of the receiver.

"No, Dad... I—"

"Enough! I thought you were responsible, Akira, but it seems that I cannot trust you anymore! You're grounded!"

"But, Dad—"

"Up to your room! Now!"

The line immediately went dead after that, and the deafening "beep" echoed continuously in the spacious room. All was silent, as everyone's mind reeled back to what Akira had said.

"It says that Izumi... killed her family."

Tadashi clenched his teeth together, utterly distraught. Everyone did the same—disregarding Haru and Juzo, of course—agreeing with his reaction.

Tomorrow they were going to get answers.

☻ ☺ ☻

"Minamoto, Kobayashi wants us all in the clubroom," Ryuu told the blue-haired female the next day in school.

She was currently feeling down, sulking, but she nodded regardless.

The two teens started towards the clubroom, and Ryuu found himself unconsciously furling his fingers into fists. "Minamoto," he began, swallowing hard. "What... happened yesterday?"

Akira's eyes widened and almost instantly, animated tears ran down her face. "My dad grounded me from going on cases with him! I lost his trust so I won't be able to go with him for who knows how long! How am I supposed to live my life, Sasahara?"

Ryuu's eyelids shot up in surprise, clearly not expecting that outburst. "I..."

Akira snuffed, wiping away her tears. "And he wouldn't even let me explain. I mean, sure I did do something illegal, but I'm his daughter! He should know by now that I don't expose the cases I do with him. I always keep them a secret, from everyone. But... but..." Akira sighed loudly, feeling dejected. "Everything nowadays is horrible..."

Ryuu shut his mouth, and frowned. Unwanted thoughts and memories filled his mind, and despite all the questions he wanted to ask, he kept quiet about them. Some part of him didn't want to hear the answers anyway.

"I know it is," he mumbled in agreement, closing his eyes painfully. "But we just have to keep going."

"Welcome, all of you," Ayame Kobayashi said, peeking down at the five teens seated before her.

They all wore inexpressive looks, already aware of why she had called them all together.

The female shut her eyes, crossing her arms. "It's obvious you all know why I summoned you here, so I won't start with the formalities." Ayame fixated her eyes onto Akira. "We all want to hear the story, Minamoto."

Akira bit her lip before exhaling. She furrowed her eyebrows together. "Yesterday morning, I was walking by my dad's research room. He keeps all of the crimes, criminal, and even normal civilians records in that room, and I'm not allowed in there or anywhere near it. But yesterday, I was wondering that since my dad had records of almost everyone in the entire city in there, good or not, Izumi's might be in there. So right after the Crime Games yesterday, I hurried home to check it out. And just like I thought, she had a file in there."

Everyone's eyes were on Akira, and she continued.

"Like I told you guys, besides her birthday, blood type, and school records—other menial stuff as well—there was a small note in the envelope. That note had a memo on it and it was extremely old and hard to decipher. It was written in English."

"English?" Ayame repeated, narrowing her eyes.

"Yes. Possibly somebody in the police force who wasn't Japanese. It took a while to translate because the English language is not one of my strong points, and when I did, it said "killed her family" on it," Akira explained.

Everyone frowned. So it was...

"And right after I rushed and told you guys that, my dad showed up and yelled at me." She hung her head sadly. "And I got grounded..."

Ayame put a hand to her chin after Akira finished her story. "I see..."

Tadashi's eyes landed on Ayame. He knew that look anywhere. She always had that look whenever she was about to reveal something important, or the answers to everything.

"Kobayashi," Tadashi spoke up.

Ayame's gaze slid onto the solemn appearing teen. She nodded to answer him, catching onto what he was thinking, and returned her gaze to everyone in the room.

"Going back to the information Izumi had uttered, she said something about "stealing the planning sheet" that day back while we were in the clubroom. We had written down the kidnapping case for Moriko Kitoshi on it, as you recall," Ayame stated. "And along with the deleted file Oogawa has left us with, this very planning sheet has also gone missing."

Everyone in the room besides Tadashi, blinked at her words.

"Deleted file?" Ryuu asked, blinking rapidly.

Tadashi's head jerked to everyone in the room, only to see them all baffled, then he turned his focus back to a silent Ayame.

We didn't tell them about Kiyoshi, and his plan, Tadashi thought to himself.

"I guess I haven't informed you all yet, huh?" Ayame sighed, pulling a hand through her hair. "To continue with this case, I'll need to tell you."

With that said, Ayame enlightened everyone gathered about the Kiyoshi and Iori incident, and of his last gamble. Everyone was taken back at the revealed news, and soon, Ayame finished the explanation.

In response to her conclusion, Akira jumped to her feet and ran toward to the computer set up in the room. Her cerulean eyes were as wide as saucers as soon as she pulled up the Moriko Kitoshi file. "No way..."

Everyone gave Ayame a suspicious look, debating on whether to trust the female or not.

Ayame cracked a smile at their unsure expressions. "You guys don't need to suspect me on what I've just said. I have a witness to this all."

"Who?" Haru asked aloud.

Ayame gestured to Tadashi who was patiently watching this all.

Ryuu's mouth dropped. "What! Tadashi, you knew about this?"

He paled as all the teens sent him astonished looks. "Uh... I..."

"I thought we were working together!" Ryuu cried, offended. "I told you everything and you didn't even tell me about this?"

"Sasahara," Ayame cut him off and Ryuu flinched. She sent him a deadpanned expression. "You're hiding something from everyone else as well. Everyone here is concealing something regarding this case, but regardless of whether they want to confess to it or wait until I've exposed their secret personally, the only chance we have to put an end to this case is to play our cards right."

Ayame smirked, highly amused.

"You should know this well. Or are you going to hate on your dear friend for hiding this from you anyway?"

Ryuu flinched at Ayame's condescending words, having nothing to say to it at all. He gritted his teeth furiously, dropping his head.

"More importantly!" Akira commented, her eyes alight with excitement. She held up her fists. "Are we going to keep arguing, or are we going to crack this case?"

With a short laugh, Ayame put a hand to her chin once again. "Let's begin."

"The planning sheet went missing around the time Moriko Kitoshi was kidnapped in accordance with the plan us fourteen members conjured up. Next, Oogawa feigned the deleted file to lead us astray from the case. But, his plan failed," Ayame proclaimed to begin the discussion. "The whole planning sheet slipped our minds, as we believed the mastermind stole it to use in the kidnapping case. However..."

Tadashi nodded at Ayame's words before speaking up, "If one of us fourteen members were the ones to have committed the crime, we didn't need it."

Akira blinked. "What do you mean?"

Tadashi held out a hand for emphasis. "First of all, we all were assured that the culprit took the planning sheet to commit the crime. But that possibility only exists if the culprit was somebody outside of this club. All of the club members were here at the time of the finalization, and we—as a group—constructed this entire kidnapping scheme. So, to kidnap Moriko Kitoshi, all fourteen of us didn't need the actual planning sheet to do the deed."

Ryuu put his hand to his mouth in thought, his light brown eyes filled with recognition. "That's true. So, that would mean..."

"Chiaki Asahina and Iori Yutaka were the ones who kidnapped Moriko Kitoshi on orders from the mastermind. They were the culprits, as you already know. But, since they were here at the time of the finalization, they didn't need the sheet itself to commit the crime," Ayame finished. "So the only answer that remains is that the mastermind doesn't have the planning sheet in his or her possession. Or rather, he or she couldn't have gotten it in the first place so they don't have it."

"Wait, Ayame! If what you're saying is true, then Izumi isn't the mastermind! And what do you mean they 'couldn't have gotten it'?" Akira inquired in frenzy.

"If, like Matsumoto said, the culprits, Chiaki Asahina and Iori Yutaka, were here at the finalization, they didn't need the planning sheet for the crime. Then, if that's the case, who stole the planning sheet?"

"Izu...min...?" Haru answered unsurely, tilting his head to the side as he snacked on some Pockys.

Ayame nodded. "Izumi Shinzo stole the planning sheet, and has had it since the very beginning."

"By beginning... what do you mean?" dully pondered the silent Juzo seated at the table. His existence was almost forgotten, so his sudden involvement startled everyone. He truly excelled at diminishing his presence.

Shaking her head, Ayame inhaled a deep breath. "Izumi Shinzo has always been in charge of both writing up and putting away our Crime Games plans. Since we were all so used to that fact, nobody paid any attention to Shinzo while she was depositing the sheet into the drawer the day we formulated that plan."

Tadashi's eyes widened. That was...true.

Nobody was paying any attention to what she was doing so she had the opportunity to take it, Tadashi thought to himself. She took advantage of the situation, and successfully duped us...

Ayame narrowed her eyes into a darkened glower. "Think about it this way, everyone. If what I'm thinking is correct, Shinzo didn't place the planning sheet into the folder to begin with. So there wasn't a sheet for somebody to even steal."

Everyone eye's widened, understanding what Ayame was getting at.

It was true. If Izumi didn't place the sheet in there, then it all made sense. Why the planning sheet went missing, her words, and also why nobody could nab it.

"She has a connection to Moriko Kitoshi, as the information I received from tailing her portrays that," Ayame went on. "I also believe that Moriko Kitoshi has something to do with why she stole the paper to begin with."

A beat of silence.

"Everyone. This is enough evidence as it is." Ayame crossed her arms, lightening her gaze. "We have somewhere we need to go. Let's meet up tomorrow morning."

☻ ☺ ☻

The Shinzo mansion was enormous. Even greater, and grander, and way more extravagant than Kazuma Kurosaki's, especially at the brink of dawn Saturday morning. Well, it was only to be expected considering this was the Prime Minister's private house. Of course it had to be amazing.

"Wow..." Akira's jaw fell, along with everybody else.

"Hey, Sasarin..." Haru began, his mouth and eyes wide as well.

Ryuu turned his head to his friend. "What?"

Haru's mouth watered. "Do you think we can get high class food?"

Ryuu rolled his eyes before smacking the backside of his head. "Focus, idiot."

Haru puffed up his cheeks, rubbing his head with a pout. "Why are you always hitting me?"

"Because you keep saying stupid things," Ryuu retorted.

Haru seemed about ready to defend himself until Ayame stepped forward, and up to the answering machine attached to the broad gate surrounding the exterior of the house.

"Stop fighting, you two. We're here for business."

Without argue, both teens shut up. Tadashi watched from afar as Ayame pressed the button, fear coursing through him. He already knew the reason they were here. They were going to confront Izumi, and figure out the truth for themselves.

At the corner of his eye, Tadashi caught sight of two long, black limousines parked at a distance from the mansion, and his gaze fell onto the people inside of them. They wore matching black suits and shades, and it was obvious they were watching them.

Tadashi hurriedly shook off their gazes and returned his attention to the teens before him. Those stares only put him on edge.

As soon as Ayame pushed the button, a mechanical answering machine replied back, "Ayame Kobayashi, Ryuu Sasahara, Haru Tomachi, Akira Minamoto, Juzo Fatora, and Tadashi Matsumoto, we've been anticipating your arrival."

The large gates reeled inward after the monotonous voice finished the ominous sentence.

Akira shivered. "I...isn't this usually the scene where we all get killed by entering the haunted mansion? Maybe we should head ba—"

"Minamoto, we came here for answers. There's no use trying to avoid them," Ayame simply said before entering through the gates.

No later than three seconds, the rest of the teens followed after their upperclassman into the mansion.

It was just like she had once said: risk was unavoidable.

☻ ☺ ☻

"Everyone, what a pleasant surprise."

Izumi Shinzo sat elegantly on the maroon coloured sofa, taking a sip of tea. She wore casual clothing, and unlike usual, her blonde hair was kept down idly on her shoulders.

Craning her head to the group who stood by the doorway of the large room, Izumi sent them an innocent smile. "What do you need at a place like this?"

She was acting irregular. Smugly so, unlike her uptight, haughty self. Almost as if she were an innocent princess who did nothing wrong, she was patiently waiting for her clubmates to speak.

"Shinzo, you did it!" Ryuu started, holding out an accusatory finger. "You stole the planning sheet from the clubroom!"

Immediately, Izumi's unimpeachable look morphed into a glower. She placed the tea she was drinking onto the table before her, and dropped her leg that was propped over her other one.

"I see. This is why you all have been following me lately." Standing from the chair she was seated on, Izumi blew on her manicured nails. "I was so sure you were here to discuss something important regarding this case."

"Don't dodge the question, Izumi! We overheard you on the phone!" Akira hollered, holding out a finger also.

Izumi's deadpanned expression fell onto the blue haired female. "What question? Did you even ask me a question? To me, it sounded nothing but a stupid accusation."

"It's not stupid!" Akira retaliated. "You betrayed us, Izumi! You stole the planning sheet of the Moriko Kitoshi case, and we all know that you're somehow connected with her!"

"Huh?" Izumi's lips upturned into a haughty smirk. "Do you have proof for that? Accusing me is one thing, but even saying that I'm connected with Moriko Kitoshi; what kind of BS is that?"

Everyone but Ayame Kobayashi flinched. Well, they didn't have physical proof... but...

Izumi held out a hand for emphasis. "See. Nobody has—"

"We have proof."

Izumi scowled at her rival who didn't appear fazed by her words at all.

"You're in seventeen clubs, right? Plus you go to prep courses twice a week," Ayame said.

Izumi scoffed. "So what? How does what I do with my life affect you? And of course I go to prep courses. I'm in my last year of high school. I want to study to get into the best university."

"The Prime Minister's daughter has no need for that, especially if she has one of the top marks in the entire third year. Nor should she have any obligation to join seventeen clubs if she hates extracurricular activities. But the reason you're doing all this is because of one simple fact..." Ayame knitted her eyebrows together. "You, Izumi Shinzo, are not the Prime Minster's daughter."

Everyone's heads snapped towards Ayame in complete and utter shock.

What? Tadashi's breathing hiked. Izumi isn't the...

Izumi broke out into a malevolent laugh at Ayame's allegation. She laughed hysterically, grabbing onto her stomach in amusement. Everyone was astonished by her unexpected behaviour, and were slightly freaked out.

Wiping away a tear, Izumi faced everyone with an excited smile. She snapped her fingers and instantly, in came charging the males from outside. Through the window, from the door behind them; every possible route into the room. They blocked off all of the exits, and slowly surrounded the six teens.

Paranoid, all of them glanced around the clamped up room, tense with nerves. A bad premonition washed over them.

Izumi grinned. "Yeah, I guess that is right. I'm not the Prime Minister's daughter. You really are a genius at mysteries, Ayame. I'm not even surprised." She tittered breathlessly. "Oh, but that confession alone isn't much fun, is it? I'll tell you, then. All you must know about yours truly."

☻ ☺ ☻

"Is this important?" snapped a gruff delinquent, entering the CRF clubroom after the taller male.

"Yes, Yasuo. It seems we're going to have to take action much sooner than we thought." Taking a seat at the table across from Yasuo Ishikawa, the man chuckled wryly. "You do remember why we're here, don't you?"

"Yeah, yeah." Yasuo rolled his eyes. "We're here to protect this club's history." He scoffed. "For someone who acts like they don't know anything, you really are nitpicky about these things."

"It's always the unexpected ones, huh? Ha ha, if only I had a fitting backstory to tell," chuckled the man. "Well, our job in general is only to observe from afar. When you say it's necessary, I'll act."

Yasuo snorted, clicking his tongue. "Then, let's not. It's a pain, anyway. And besides, those assholes are keeping secrets and doing stuff without me. How am I supposed to know if it's time for us to get involved or not?"

Before the man could answer him, an amused laugh erupted inside the room. Whipping their heads toward the doorway, Yasuo scowled at the one who entered.

Amused, the male's ominous teal coloured eyes met Yasuo's hazel ones.

"You're..." Yasuo began.

Sousuke Nakurama snickered. "Yasuo Ishikawa, do you truly want to know what your fellow club members are up to? If so, I can tell you. At a good price, of course."

☻ ☺ ☻

Yup, personally, I really like this chapter. S-so *coughs* m-many *coughs* r-revelations in one chapter XD Things only get crazier too, lol.

On a completely unrelated note, I've been re-reading the manga "Kamisama Kiss," or if you know the anime of it "Kamisama Hajimemashita," because I never did finish it. And once again, I'm reminded of why Mizuki used to be my favourite character. It was only in the anime, that Tomoe started to grow on me - I still love him of course though. But it's weird, right? Considering Tomoe is like everyone's favourite. But I always fall for the side-characters for some reason...

Oh, and if you want to read a good mystery/thriller manga read "Arisa." It sort of inspired this story actually, and the twists in it are really unexpected. I think there's only about twelve volumes too(?) but it's a good read so you should definitely check it out!

If you guys have any manga reccs, I'd like to hear them. I've been wanting mystery/thriller mangas to read, but any genre's fine :)

Thanks so much for the 1.5k reads and 54 votes as well guys! I really can't believe how much it skyrocketed from last time!

As usual, look forward to the next chapter!

-Misty