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'Letter writing is the only device for combining solitude with good company'
— Lord Byron

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"So... What are you doing here?"

Kazuma Kurosaki stood before the two teens, his gaze scrutinizing. Tadashi Matsumoto swallowed hard at his stare while Ayame kept her cold and unwavering expression as always.

"Give us the letters," said the poker-faced teen, crossing her arms firmly.

Kazuma immediately glared. "How do you know about them?"

Ayame didn't relent to Kazuma's look, and only let out a haughty breath, "You, Kazuma Kurosaki, have a great say in the school faculty due to your president status and diligent personality. So it's only natural that I would piece together that you would get involved in this alphabet case and find a way to collect them."

Tadashi watched the intense stare-down of the two seniors. They honestly appeared to hate the other as if they were rivals fighting for the same prize. Compared to Izumi Shinzo and Ayame Kobayashi, the connection of these two was far worse.

And yet they were still here...

Tadashi bit his lip apprehensively. Why did Kobayashi take me here?

Kazuma evoked a reluctant sigh, snapping Tadashi's attention back to him. He held open his door, gesturing for the two to come in. "Help yourselves."

Without a second to spare, Ayame strolled into the household. "Excuse the intrusion."

After stepping in after, Tadashi was once again in awe to how huge his household was. His eyes trailed onto a stoic Kazuma. He wondered what exactly his parents worked as since they lived in such an extravagant house.

Not only with Ayame, but Kazuma was surrounded in his own cloud of mystery as well.

Ayame came to a halt at the center of the hallway before turning back towards the black-haired teen who was still leaning against the doorway. Ayame furrowed her eyebrows. "So? Aren't you going to take us to them?"

Kazuma scoffed from where he was standing. "Are you sure you'd want to? There's police officers still roaming around this house... and in the room which I placed them in."

His violet hues locked with Ayame's, studying her reaction.

Tadashi blinked at his words. "Police officers...?"

All of a sudden, Kazuma's gaze fell onto him, as if taking his presence into consideration for once. "Tadashi," he said, causing the teen to flinch, "take Ayame out of here."

Tadashi's eyelids shot up in astonishment. "Why...?"

His gaze shifted onto Ayame who had gone as white as her hair. Tadashi's eyes grew as wide as saucers as a result. It was the first time in his life that he'd ever seen her appear so... terrified.

Ayame Kobayashi— the cold-hearted senior who never cracked under anything, who was always so emotionless and calm— was scared.

"Kurosaki, is someone there?"

The echo of large footsteps stomping down the wooden floor jolted the shaken up Ayame. Kazuma immediately hurried in front of the two, squaring his shoulders.

While passing by Tadashi, he leaned in to his ear and whispered, "Just leave for the day. I'll tell you all my discoveries on a later date."

Tadashi's heart skipped a beat at his words but before he could open his mouth to question it, Kazuma already disappeared down the hallway where the police officers were coming from.

Tadashi could hear Kazuma's polite approach to the officers' questions as he turned his attention towards his frozen senior. Tadashi frowned. She was basically petrified.

But why?

Shaking away his thoughts, he waved his hand in front of her face to snap her back to reality. Blinking rapidly, as if she had woken up in a daze, Ayame reflexively smacked away his hand. Tadashi winced, drawing it back and regret coated Ayame's expression for a split second. She quickly looked away, a faint tint on her cheeks. Then, the trembling female scampered out the front doors.

Tadashi, who couldn't process what had just happened, sighed before racing after her. Ayame was speed-walking down the pavement, while Tadashi was running after her. Once he arrived to her side — barely keeping up with her quick speed — he could hear Ayame muttering many curses under her breath.

"Kazuma Kurosaki... That male let us in on purpose. That devil... This is why I don't like getting involved with him..."

Huh? Tadashi thought, raising an eyebrow.

Ayame, who still looked oddly unsettled, bit her thumbnail anxiously, averting her attention around for any sign of anyone — most likely the police. Tadashi watched her, truly fascinated by the unexpected behaviour of the teen. Right now... Ayame seemed so human-like.

She'd never shown any emotion before — just like a robot — but now...

As soon as the two teens made it safely out of the household and down the curb, Ayame came to a stop. She breathed a sigh of relief, spinning around on her heels. "They shouldn't be around here...right?"

"Kobayashi..." Tadashi opened his mouth.

She flinched, her eyes widening as if she had only now noticed him; realized he had witnessed everything she had done.

Tadashi disregarded it altogether before continuing, "Um—"

"Forget everything you saw." Ayame's gaze was diverted to the ground, catching Tadashi off guard.

"But—"

"The school will most likely be opened again for Monday," she said, fixing her gaze elsewhere. The odd emotion that engulfed her made her feel even more uncomfortable than she should've been. Why did she always have to subconsciously react in front of this troublesome male? "I-I'll talk to you then, Matsumoto."

With that unexpected stutter, she sauntered off, leaving Tadashi in a heap of confusion. He craned his neck upwards at the sky, exhaling loudly.

Lots of occurrences had happened around him, but once again, he didn't have any answers.

☻ ☺ ☻

"There's a total of thirteen envelopes with letters imprinted on it, and also one letter with a certain sentence."

Kazuma stood before the present CRF members within the Student Council room. It was a large room, way bigger than the CRF hideout, with documents and papers scattered throughout the four desks planted into the room. Though, Kazuma's desk was relatively larger than the other three, and it stood right at the front near the windows.

Everyone swallowed hard as Kazuma lined up the thirteen envelopes onto the table in the center, with alphabet letters pasted onto it.

"The thirteen envelopes contained one sole letter on them each. Amongst those put to sleep in the school, thirteen had a letter with them when they were admitted into the hospital," Kazuma went on. "I asked the police to take them from their hands for a while, and they agreed."

"Why would they just hand them to you?" Yasuo asked bitterly.

Kazuma's eyes met his hazel ones. "I represent the student body, so I know the students and clubs enrolled better than they do. They wanted my cooperation," he replied simply. "Though, they have permitted me the chance to oversee them only if I had a police attendant with me during the times I was handling them."

Ryuu raised an eyebrow curiously. "But... there's no one here now."

"So how do you have it?" Katsura finished curtly.

Juzo stared at him questioningly as well.

Kazuma crossed his arms with a sigh, "I'm borrowing it for the moment while my attendant is taking a very important phone call."

His words tumbled out of his mouth eerily, causing Ayame to narrow her eyes.

"Important, huh?"

"Yes. Though, Hitomi may or may not be distracting him right now," Kazuma excused, cracking under everyone's pressuring stares. "Anyway, the letters, going in order of discovery, are: A, M, K, E, A, R, A, M, S, H, I, H, A.

"Besides them, I also received a letter prior to the first envelope being revealed."

Kazuma rummaged through the envelopes and pulled out a different one from the rest. It was jet black, with a bizarre seal used to hold it together. Clutching the envelope in plain sight, Kazuma recited the sentence him and Tadashi had already seen.

'for tHere Is trouble, tHere iS crIme. for As criMe is ARt and detectives Are Merciless. And that is the grEatest Kace of all~'

Tadashi gulped. The more they went into detail about it, the more confusing it got. Did the culprit want them to sort these into alphabetical order or something?

Tadashi lagged behind as his fellow mates bombarded the Student Council President with questions.

It wasn't like him... This entire thing... It was off...

Was it really the mastermind doing this?

"Kurosaki," Ayame commented, and everyone's eyes turned to her. She held up her hand. "Let me see the envelope."

The stoic male looked at her before reluctantly doing so. "There's nothing important besides the letter."

Ayame received the envelope from his grasps and studied it curiously.

"I've been looking at all of them for days and still couldn't find anything. Even the seal..." Before Kazuma could finish, the sour frown that enveloped Ayame's face caught his interests. He knitted his eyebrows together.

"What's wrong, Kobayashi?" Yasuo asked, his eyebrows raised.

"Follow me." The cold-hearted female spun on her heels before sparing the group around her one last glance. "I know who it is."

☻ ☺ ☻

"Hehehehe," cackled a certain individual, smirking widely from ear to ear.

"Huh? Akemi?" A girl blinked, turning to look at the certain female. She paled slightly at the sight of the girl's smirk while she stared intently into the crystal ball before her. "What are you doing?"

Akemi cackled, her blood tainted hues glinting mischievously. She touched the crystal ball, sniggering, "The fourteen letters are all in place~"