Chapter Text
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As the two detectives rushed off with Rantaro to find Tsumugi or whatever, Himiko followed Keebo as he carried Angie to the nurse’s office. He seemed intrigued by her trailing of him, giving her a strange look as she practically walked on his heels. Perhaps that too was because Tenko was trailing her as well, as she’d refused to stay in the library with Kaito and Maki, but it was still strange.
Eventually, Keebo let out a slight sigh. “Why are you two following me?” he asked. “You never cared much for Angie, did you, your highness?”
Himiko’s breath caught a bit. She still wasn’t used to people referring so formally to her. She had to act pretty natural, right? “Well, I was the one who stumbled across her, s-so of course I care,” she lied. It hurt her to think the her of this world didn’t care for one of her most precious friends, didn’t realize how lucky she was to still have Angie near her.
“Funny, Rantaro told me he and Kokichi found her,” Keebo said with a glare back at her. Ah, was he suspicious of her? She supposed acting strangely and following the victim would be considered suspect behavior in the case of most crimes. Not like she wasn’t used to being circumstantially suspicious.
There were two ways to clear her name: either bluff or come clean about why she was acting weird. In most circumstances, the latter would be the best play, but here? Keebo very much seemed like the goody two shoes type who would tell a teacher immediately if she told him the truth, so she couldn’t risk letting him in on the secrets. Luckily, she had an option B.
“I-it’s not as if I care a-about her!” Himiko stuttered out like a grade-A Anime Tsundere. “I simply feel an obligation, that’s all!” She huffed dramatically. She glanced at Tenko and thought hard about her lips on her own to force a blush to cross her face. “N-now, just be silent and allow me to grace you with my help!”
“You better listen to the princess!” Tenko chimed in, seemingly picking up on her ruse. “She can get temperamental, you know?” She gave a strained laugh as she did so, tapping the ends of her braids together.
Keebo sighed, not looking back at them. “Are either of you planning to tell me what’s really going on?” He asked, sounding much more dire than usual. “Angie has some sort of unexplained malady, Shuichi asked about poisonings, and now you two are acting uneasy. I’m not blind, I can tell something is very much wrong.”
Again, two options: fess up, or dig deeper. “If I tell you, you must promise not to tell another soul about it,” Himiko said, trying to buy time to decide and/or think of a good lie. “If you tell even a teacher, it could be a matter of life and death.”
Tenko looked at her and nodded, something flashing in her eyes behind her thick glasses. She had an idea, and wanted Himiko to let her take the lead. Himiko nodded back, placing her trust in her.
For his part, Keebo just sighed. “Medical professionals have a non-disclosure policy, so I would be violating some medical laws if I did tell someone, technically, if this pertains to Angie’s health,” Keebo agreed. “At least, I can argue that. I mean… Nurse Nidai might kill me, but I’ll take that risk if it’s truly a matter of life and death.”
Letting out a small whimper, Tenko rushed in front of Keebo, fake trembling like she was about to sob. “I-it’s awful! Himiko’s family warned her last night an assassin was coming to the school to poison her! One of their political enemies sent them after her. A-and… They must have mistaken Angie for her, because she got attacked instead…”
Eyes lighting up in shock, Keebo nodded and began moving more quickly down the hall. “I see… So that’s why Shuichi wanted to test for poisons?”
“Indeed,” Himiko said, as composed as she could be. “I informed him, since he has done work for me before, in case he’d be in danger, and he told Kokichi because he thought his talent would be relevant. We decided to frame it as if she’d collapsed, and… well…”
Keebo blinked. “His talent-? How exactly does a child caretaker pertain to an attempted murder?”
Ah. Right. He wasn’t there for Kokichi talking about his real talent. Luckily, Tenko chimed in to help. “He works with small children- they’d be the most at risk for someone dangerous potentially entering the school, especially if they’re reckless enough to confuse the princess with Angie. We presumed they’d just been given the description of a short girl, so we feared any children in his care might be endangered.”
Himiko found herself smiling. She was a bit in awe of Tenko’s storytelling abilities. Of course, it was her talent, but it was a remarkable talent to apply in this situation. “That’s right, yes,” Himiko conferred. “And we ran into Maki and Kaito on our way to the library, and did our best to not explain too much to them. We don’t know who we can trust- for all we know, one of them is an assassin.” Well, one of them was in another world, but that was beside the point. All Keebo needed to know was that it was risky to trust people here.
He was practically running down the hall at this point. “Th-that is very much not good. And… you suspect someone in the administration could be compromised? Surely not Headmaster Naegi, though. Can’t you ask him? Tenko, he mentors you, right?”
“Y-yes, but… if we told him, he’d send the school into a frenzy, and we’d never be able to weed them out!” Tenko exclaimed. “If there’s a chance they’re still here, we need to find evidence of them. We’re going to do our best to investigate on our own, but we wanted to make sure Angie is okay first.”
“I can’t say I understand, but I’ll place my trust in you two,” Keebo agreed. “I don’t want to aggravate the situation, and I don’t want to further bring harm to Angie. This seems to be a political issue, so I will trust the Ultimate Princess with it. You don’t need to worry about Angie- I’ll do all I can to care for her, and if she wakes up, I’ll let you know right away, alright? Now, you both go on ahead and do what you need to.”
Himiko gave a little bow. “Thank you, Keebo. I appreciate your aid greatly.” She took Tenko’s hand and ran back down the hall with her, not even thinking about where they were going until they were back in front of the library door. She then let herself stop to catch her breath, still clinging to Tenko’s hand as if it would slip away if it left her own.
“That was really good improv,” Himiko assured her with a small smile. “You might be the Ultimate Novelist, but you could make a good argument for being the Ultimate Actor too. You considered theater?”
Tenko turned bright red. “Himiko! I- I have too much stage fright for that! But… thank you. I hoped I was able to convince him, and it seems I was able to. But, I must ask you, what now?”
Glancing at the library door, she shrugged. “I mean… I’d love to just go play detective with you, but we probably shouldn’t leave Kaito and Maki alone with all this. What do you think?”
“I agree, and there’s something I want to check out,” Tenko said, starting towards the library door. “I want to look at those books Shuichi and Kokichi were talking about, the ones like the one Angie was found with.”
“That seems like a good place to start,” Himiko agreed. “But, didn’t Shuichi have them? In that case, they’re probably in his room, and I doubt he left it unlocked.”
After a moment of humming in deep thought, Tenko swung open the door to the library and poked her head in. “Hey, either of you two know how to pick locks by any chance?” she asked a very surprised looking Maki and Kaito. “Kind of need to break into Shuichi’s room.”
“Wh-what?” Maki stuttered out, eyes wide. “Why would you need to-”
Before she could finish, Kaito rushed towards the door. “Not a problem! No arcane tools can hide from my might, and that includes locks!” He flung the door all the way open, nearly knocking Tenko over. “Oh- s-sorry! A-anyways, I can help. You coming, Maki Roll?”
Maki shook her head. “I’ll leave you three to it. There’s something I was curious about, actually, so I’m going to go… check on Angie.”
“Huh? What’s your idea?” Kaito asked, almost getting smacked by the door himself as he took a step back towards Maki.
Maki made a fist and put it on her face, about where Angie’s bruise had been. “Even if the punch wasn’t what knocked her out, I think if we could determine how big whatever struck her was, it would help. So, I was going to measure the bruise and compare that to sizes of potential blunt weapons and people’s fists.”
“Ah! That’s so clever! Do you mind if I steal that for a story?” Tenko asked, eyes shining a bit with eager inspiration.
“Well, I have no idea if it’s actually going to produce any results or be practical, but knock yourself out,” Maki said before pausing. “Wait. Poor choice of words given the situation. Don’t get knocked out if possible, please.”
She started to walk past them, but Himiko remembered she was about to go see Keebo, so she called out a sentence she really didn’t think she ever would have to. “Oh! By the way, we told Keebo that Angie was attacked by an assassin that was trying to kill me, so just like… Tell him we had to tell you to help with the investigation and stuff!”
Her fellow survivor from another world blinked and stared blankly for a moment. “Uh, o-okay? I- I guess, sure.” As she walked off, Himiko could hear her mumble “God, and I thought Kokichi’s stories were weird…”
Kaito waved at her before turning to the two girls. “Alright, ladies, so we’re going to Shuichi’s room for those books?” He questioned. “I mean, you said some bitch wrote it? And they’re about those killing games you were in?”
“Did you read the one that was still in the library? We should grab that one too,” Tenko said. “It has to be related, don’t you think?”
“Oh! Me and Maki were looking at it, actually!” Kaito exclaimed. “But, there was nothing in it.”
“Can we still see it?” Tenko asked. “Even if there was nothing of note on its own, maybe if we compare it to the others-”
“No, like literally, there was nothing in it,” Kaito interrupted. He rushed back into the library and brought the book back, flinging it open and dangling it by its cover in a way that made Tenko cringe. The pages were weathered, but blank. He flipped through it a bit to demonstrate that in fact, all of it was completely blank.
Himiko wasn’t sold on it being worthless, though. “Maybe it’s in invisible ink,” she suggested. “If it’s important, M or whoever wasn’t gonna make it easy, right?”
“But who would just have a blank book that looks this old to invisible ink up?” Kaito questioned back. “This some sort of long con? Or maybe it isn’t related at all?”
“Nah, it’s gotta relate somehow,” Himiko insisted. “A book like that, if what Shuichi told us about the other books is true, plus with the name and title, it’s definitely connected! At the very least, whoever wrote it would have had to know about our world, right? So even if it wasn’t M’s, it’s a clue, right? Plus, Shuichi said it wasn’t showing up in any search results, that’s super suspicious!”
“Plenty of books on these shelves weren’t officially published, though,” Tenko countered. “Many of mine and the headmaster’s, for instance-”
Realization hit Himiko like a wave. “The headmaster- Tenko, Keebo said he mentors you, right? So he writes too?”
“He was actually the Ultimate Novelist when he went to this school,” Tenko said. “Why?”
Keebo had referred to Headmaster Naegi- that name sounded all too familiar. He was supposed to have been the Headmaster in that weird space story Tsumugi cooked up and tried to present as real. His first name… what was it again? “Tell me his full name,” she demanded.
“Makoto Naegi!” Kaito chimed in. “Well, Professor Makoto Naegi, but usually I just call him Uncle Makoto. See, he’s like, best friends with my mom and-”
Makoto. M. Was it that simple? Himiko didn’t head a word Kaito said as he prattled on about his family, she just stared at the book.
“I have a hunch,” Himiko blurted out, focusing hard on the book still in Kaito’s hand. “But, you two aren’t going to like it.”