↳ CHAPTER TWELVE:

THE GONER ↲

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20| MORNING

IT WAS A GREY AND CLOUDLY MORNING IN SHIBUYA, JAPAN.

Ren sat quietly in the subway, today being a lucky day were he could grab a seat. Of course he was still being tightly squeezed between random people, but it was better than standing around the entire time.

The frizzy haired boy was used to the crowdedness of the train by now, he didn't enjoy it but it wasn't as distracting as it was the first few times.

Morgana was peacefully hiding in his school bag that he held carefully. The cat suggested maybe reading a book to bridge the time, but he could only think about one curious thing.

Kaori Watanabe was missing from school for two days now, not to mention that she was ignoring all of their texts and calls.

It was as if she was just a person invented by their own imagination that now ceased to exist. She completely disappeared from the face of the earth. It was curious indeed, not one day before she was excited, ready, be it incredibly anxious about stealing Kamoshida's treasure and then suddenly she ignored them like they never existed to her.

He and Ann already asked Ryuji if he knew anything about her, considering that they were middle school friends. He only responded with a shrug of his shoulders and saying that it wasn't the first time she has done this and that maybe she could be sick.

The now trio of Ren, Ryuji and Ann already started to slowly make their way through the palace to secure their infiltration route to the treasure with Morgana. They had to admit it was manageable to do this as four phantom thieves, but if they had one more person it would be far easier for all of them.

Ren sighed and slumped in his seat, putting his arm on his bag and leaning his head on his hand, starting to play with that part of hair again. He didn't know why, but he wanted to find out what was going on with the petite brunette. It was just a compulsive need to know, he wanted to help her. He has only known her for a week, but he couldn't stand the thought of anything happening to her.

After all he already considered them friends.

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Ann Takamaki walked through the halls of Shujin Academy with a confidence a lot of people admired about her.

Unbothered by all the stares of the girls, who were jealous and all the boys who saw her only as an object for their lustful desires.

She sighed and pushed a few strands of her blonde hair behind her ear. Ever since Shiho was brought into the hospital because of the incident, she didn't have anyone she could rely on,- besides of course Ryuji, Ren, Kaori and Morgana.

The friendship only recently begun but Ann couldn't help but feel that she already found the best friends for life. As it goes for the boys, she's not so sure about Kaori... After all the two haven't spoken word after everything that happened on Saturday.

She sincerely hoped that the perky brunette was okay, but since not seeing her in school for the last couple of days she doubted it.

Ignoring her peers Ann walked slowly into her classroom, a few people were already in it, chatting and talking to each other smiling, oblivious or ignorant to the troubles of Kamoshida.

Her blue eyes scanned the classroom carefully as she saw the usual faces of her classmates, and the untouched seat by the window, that was behind hers.

A small frown formed on to her lips, she should have expected by now that it was going to be empty, but maybe the small hope that she would sit there doodle in her journal or talk to Ren and Morgana behind her was lingering in her mind.

She sat her bag down on to her desk before walking to Ren, who sat quietly in his seat as usual.

"Is she still not here?" Ann asked the unsuspecting boy, who sighed in responds and shook his head.

Ann also sighed at the responds and put a hand to her head, "Great, Ryuji is not going to be happy about that."

"You think?" The boy replied jokingly with a small smile.

"Don't joke about this. You're worried too, aren't you?"

"Of course I'm worried, I just try to lighten up the situation."

"Well, keep the jokes to yourself when we talk to Ryuji. He's getting real worked up about this, they used to be friends after all."

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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20| LUNCHTIME

Ryuji ran up to Ann and Ren with a grin as the Lunch break began.

The trio of teens (and Morgana) joined together at the vending machines as always to talk about their plans after school, and the now frequent topic of Kaori disappearing from the face of the earth.

Ren and Morgana sat on one of the benches near the machines, while Ann got herself something from one of them.

Ryuji jogged up to them, "Guys, I know where Kaori is," he spoke loudly as he arrived.

The frizzy haired boy peaked at his friend saying that, as Ann finally came to join the two with a drink in her hand. The blonde sat down on the table opposite of the boys and cat in a bag.

She opened the bottle and took a sip before joining the conversation, "You do? Then where is she? How is she? And how did you find out?" She asked rapidly in a worrisome tone.

"I was late to school when I overheard two girls talking about it, and I know it must be true because one of them was Riko-san," Ryuji explained, which was only responded with by an eye roll from Morgana.

"Who's Riko-san?" Morgana asked.

Ann sighed and closed her bottle, "She used to be this real bratty girl in middle school that Kaori was friends with before the incident with Kamoshida."

Ryuji jumped in, "Yeah, but they were only friends because of their moms," he said bitterly.

Ann sighed, "Back to the topic at hand, where is she?" Ann asked.

"At the hospital."

"What? Why?"

"You don't think I would tell ya if I knew?!"

"Oh my, you don't think something happened do you?"

The blondes and cat turned to face him, who up until not stayed silent and intently listened to the conversation. "Maybe we should visit her..." he replied calmly, pushing his glasses up on his nose, "We need a break from the palace anyway."

Ann smiled for the first time in a while, "I agree," she said.

Ryuji sighed, "I guess two against one, huh? Fine, I'll come too."

Ann beamed at Ryuji and gave him a little side hug as a thank you, before turning back to also include Ren in their conversation, "Alright, then it's settled. Let's meet in front of the school gates after school," the two boys nodded.

"Good, we should head back then. Classes will be starting again soon."

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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20| AFTER SCHOOL

After the awkwardest and quietest subway ride the entirety of Japan ever experience, the quartet of Ryuji, Ann, Ren and Morgana strolled through the busy city.

It was raining softly, so each of them had an umbrella over their head to shield them from it. The two blondes were walking slightly in front of Ren, who quietly fell behind to give the two some space.

Ann sighed in frustration and pushed a few strands of hair out of her face, before turning towards Ryuji, "We've been walking for twenty minutes, you said it was ten minutes away from the station!" She yelled at him.

"Geez, Sorry. It's been a while once I last visited this fancy hospital," Ryuji only replied, "Why are you so worried about her anyway? It's not like you're her best friend or something."

Ann scoffed, "Well, for someone who is suppose to be her friend, you care very little."

"I care, okay?" He responded.

"But what if something happened?" She asked, walking a bit closer to Ryuji, "After what Shiho went through, and what happened that day. I can't let anyone go through something like that alone. Especially someone that I consider a friend... I don't think that I would ever forgive myself if something happened, when I know that I could have done something..."

His eyes widened and quickly he turned to look at the wet concrete in front of them, "I'm sorry, I didn't know you felt that way..." He mumbled.

"How could you?"

"But what happened to Shiho was not your fault, it was this bastards."

"I know, believe me."

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"Now, tell me again what you remember."

Kaori Watanabe sat silently in her hospital bed, a blank stare on her face, as the man in front of her asked her the same question over and over again.

Her messy burgundy hair was hanging in front of her face, covering one of her yellow eyes slightly.

She wore a white hospital gown and was bandaged and bruised in multiple places. She gripped her bedsheets tightly with her hands, and took a deep shaky breath before letting go once more, "I-I was walking home from hanging out with a friend," she began slowly and carefully. "That's when a bunch of men came up to me. They- they had hoods over their heads and bandanas masking their faces."

She closed her eyes tightly for a moment, taking another deep and shaky breath, before continuing on, "I-I didn't know what to do, I was frozen in fear, so one of them came up to me and grabbed my wrist, and out of reflex I kicked him in stomach, making him double over in pain."

"He must have been the leader or something because, after that everyone else ganged up on me and first they beat me up and kicked me, then they-they stole my money and left me alone in the alley. Luckily they left me my phone, so I could call my mother, who then drove me here."

The teen went quiet quickly, avoiding eye contact with the detective in front of her. Silence filled the room for a long period of time, as the detective noted everything down that left Kaori's mouth.

The man finished and closed his leather bound notebook, pocketing his pen into his jacket, "Thank you for your cooperation. We'll see what we can do for you, Miss Watanabe. This wasn't the first time a young woman like yourself has been attacked. We are working on finding who is responsible for this," He made a short pause and stood up from the chair next to the bed, "But In the mean time you should rest up."

Kaori looked at the man blankly and nodded slightly, before choking out a weak, "Will do."

The man nodded satisfied and left the room, "Goodbye, Kaori-san." He said flashing her a smile before closing the door behind him, leaving Kaori alone again.

The brunette let out a deep breath and turned to face the large window on the other side of the room, the grey weather outside seemed to reflect her mood, as it hasn't stopped raining since she was put in the hospital.

She was sad, bitter even that she was basically trapped here, because knew how much joy it brought to her mother that she couldn't see her friends.

Kaori let out a frustrated huff and pushed a bit of her burgundy hair that hung on front of her face, behind her ear, making a noticeable bruise around one of her yellow eyes visible.

She thought that she finally had a moment of peace, but once again a knock was heard from the other side of the door, followed by rather loud mumbling.

"What are ya knocking for? Just go in already!" A familiar voice spoke in a whisper-shout.

"That's rude, and also we don't know what's going on right know, she could be naked for all we know," a female voice spoke this time.

"I don't thing you appreciate the trouble we've been through to get here, if someone catches us now, we're in deep shit."

"I hate to admit it, but Ryuji is right," another boyish voice replied.

"Alright, I'm just gonna open the door then," a fourth smooth and calm and collected voice spoke.

As the words were spoke Kaori pushed pieces of her hair once again in front of her face, masking the puffy black eye, whilst turning around to look outside the window again, preparing herself for the next set of people interrogating her.

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