Chapter 8- An After-School Mission - chapter 9- Investigating a Scheme - chapter 10- A Detective Team
Crowley had handed us some papers naming people who were going to play in Spelldrive and had gotten hurt, Grim and I had gone on to the school infirmary. After talking to the school nurse we went to go find him.
“All right, where’s this guy who hurt his ankle.” Grim jumped up into my arms, looking around. There were two Heartslabyul students, who smiled when they saw us.
“Huh?” the first one said, the second one nudged the other one “hey, it’s the ones from Ramshakle House! They were at the unbirthday party! What are you guys doing here?”
“Get a load o’ that! We’re totally famous!” Grim nudged my chest before I cleared my throat. “Stairway patrol, we’ll ask the questions...We'd like to ask about your accident.” I put Grim down and pulled out my notepad and pen.
“Uh, that’s kind of a weird job, but okay.” the second guy spoke.
“It is NOT a weird job.” I glared before looking back at the first guy “now what happened?”
“I wish I knew what happened myself, man. I was walking along, talking to my friends and next thing I knew, BOOM! I was tumbling down the stairs.” The first guy spoke which I quickly wrote down.
“Yeah. I didn’t even see him stumbling or anything.” the second guy shook his head, I jotted that down too.
“It was like my body just lurched forward by itself. I can’t really explain it.” the first guy huffed, I hummed as i wrote it down.
“Hm. Hmmm. interesting. Veeeery interesting.” Grim nodded along, looking up at me and watching me write, I put my pen and notepad back into my bag and picked Grim up again. “Thank you for your cooperation. Let’s go interview the next victim.” I turned and left, looking at the list of names and pictures, I walked from classroom to classroom until I found him. He was sitting in Mr.Treins classroom, talking to one of his friends.
“Hey, you. You had an accident and almost got hurt real bad, right? Give us the deets.” Grim jumped from my arms as I went to pull out my notepad and pen.
“And why should I answer to you, exactly?” the first Pomefiore student spoke, before looking back to the other student.
“He was in peak condition for the Spelldrive tournament and got hurt so bad that he can’t even play now!” the other Promefiore student shouted at us.
“And you’re here to…what, rub salt in my wound? We throw down the gauntlet! Duel us!” the injured Pomefiore student jumped up, yelling at us. The moment he jumped up I drew back and kicked his legs out from under him, causing him to fall back into his seat. I placed my hand on his shoulder and looked down at him. “Sit your ass down, I’m just investigating the injuries.”
“Hmph… you’re better than I thought. All right, then. I’ll give you the skinny.” the injured student huffed.
“It happened in the laboratory. We were boiling up a potion when his hands suddenly shot out and grabbed the screaming hot cauldron. He dumped out every last drop. It was bizarre! Made a real mess too.” The other student told the story as I pulled out my notepad and pen.
“Oh, so YOU’RE gonna do all the talking?!” the injured Pomefiore student huffed and rolled his eyes as I wrote down the story.
“Hm. Hmmm. Interesting. Veeeery interesting.” Grim repeated what he said to the Heartslabyul students, I put my notepad and pen back. I picked Grim up “Hope you feel better soon. Let’s head back to the dorm for now, Grim.” Grim followed closely behind me as I walked away.
It was a long silent walk back to the dorm as I thought about the story, as soon as we walked through the dorm’s doors Grim spoke up “I dunno, this just looks like a bunch of absent-minded kids hurtin’ themselves to me. If there’s a scandal here, I ain’t seein’ it!”
Just then the door opened, Grim jolted around “huh? Whozzat?” Grim questioned as Ace came walking through the door “Mornin’. Guess you’re feeling better now, huh, Grim?”
“Oh, it’s you. We’re kinda busy right now. No time for a kid stuff. Scram.” Grim huffed as he jumped into my arms.
“Busy? What, you got a lot of homework?” Ace grinned, I grabbed onto Ace’s arm and dragged him into the living room and pushed him down onto the couch “so here’s the deal, we’ve got to go around and investigate suspicous accidents that caused injuries around the school, so far we don’t have a lead but I’m sure we’ll figure it out eventually…”
“Injuries from suspicious accidents, huh?” Ace raised an eyebrow, “but nothin’ we heard sounded all that suspicious. It seemed like they were all just excited about the tournament, got distracted, and hurt themselves somehow.” Grim huffed.
“I don’t think someone would accidentally grab a boiling hot pot and slowly pour an entire potion before dropping it out of pain, Grim.” I scoffed, just then the front door shot open and Deuce came sprinting in “Ace! We got a big problem!” Deuce came in screaming.
“Dial it down, Loosey-Deucey. What is it?” Ace stood up, seemingly not really caring “what’s wrong Deuce, what happened?” I grabbed onto Deuce’s hand and squeezed it slightly, trying to calm him down a bit as I held Grim in my other arm.
“Trey fell down the stairs! He’s hurt!” Deuce shouted out as he squeezed my hand back before pulling it away.
“What?!” Grim, Ace and I all shouted out at the same time.
“Myah! He’s the sneaky one with the glasses, yeah?” Grim shifted around in my arms to an almost standing position.
“He never struck me as being absent-minded, it’s hard to believe he got ‘distracted’ too.” I groaned out “so I guess that means another victim, we could’ve caught the bastard if we were still in the school, goddamnit!”
“Yeah, Trey wouldn’t just trip and eat dirt.” Ace shook his head as Grim hummed slightly “let’s go see what he’s got to say!”
“Com’on Deuce, lead us to Trey!” Just as I spoke, Deuce sprinted out of my dorm and we followed, Grim had stayed in the dorm a little longer before he came running out with a can of tuna in his mouth.
“How bad is it, Deuce?” I spoke as I followed him closely “I don’t know!” he huffed as he shouted back at me.
We rushed to the mirror rooms and went to Hearstlabyul, as we entered in, Deuce ran up the stairs, I stopped just infront of the stairs, Ace rushed passed me before looking back at me “uh- why aren’t you coming?” Grim jumped out of my arms and slightly walked up the stairs.
“I-uh- I’m not really sure about walkin’ up stairs like that-” Ace cut me off and grabbed onto my wrist and began pulling me up the stairs “you’ll be fine!”
The stairs twisted and turned, I nearly fell multiple times before we finally walked away from the stairs and towards Trey’s room, Trey was laying in bed, Cater was sitting next to Trey.
“Yo, man, how’s it going?” Ace asked as we walked into the room, he let go of my hand “how are you feeling, Trey?” Deuce asked next.
“We came all this way just to see your sorry face. It’s cool—don’t get up.” Grim growled at Trey as he shifted around in his bed.
“Well, if it isn’t hunting season! And Grim and y/n too! You’re rolling deep today.” Cater laughed “hey, Cater… I’m lost. Whaddaya mean by ‘hunting season’?” Ace forrowed his brows.
“I mean it’s you guys! You’re Ace, he’s Deuce— that’s what you call an Ace Deuce in poker!” Cater smirked
“Hunting season, huh? I was just gonna call them Adeuce.” I grinned before looking over at the two boys.
“Don’t give us a couple nickname!” Deuce huffed, stomping his foot down.
“Then don’t act like a married couple!” I shouted back.
“Riiiight… Anyway, how d’you feel, Trey? And how’d you get hurt?” Ace questioned as he nudged me slightly.
I put Grim down and pulled out my pen and notepad “yeah, how did you get hurt?”
“Slipped on the stairs. I couldn’t catch myself, and my ankle got all messed up. I’ll be on crutches for a while.” Trey shrugged.
“Yikes. That sounds pretty bad!” Deuce shook his head.
“Yep. looks like I’ll be warming the bench at the Spelldrive tournament this year.” Trey shook his head and crossed his arms, leaning his head back onto his pillow.
“Myah… I was hopin’ your injury would be small enough for me to justify keepin’ this, but… Here.” Grim picked back up the tuna can he had brought with us, jumping up and placing it down onto the bed, next to Trey “I brought ya a get-well can of tuna. Feel better, specs.”
Trey smiled down at Grim “heh. Thanks.” he patted Grim on the head and held onto the tuna can, he looked up at me and mouthed out the words ‘he’s adorable’ with a grin.
“Ugh, hashtag #fail! Now that we’ve lost a power player, we have to redo our team roster!” Cater sighed and dramatically leaned back on Trey’s bed, making sure not to lay on his legs.
“Wait, what?!” Deuce and Ace shouted out with mischievous grins on their faces.
“Why are there so many people in here? Trey is supposed to be resting!” Riddle sighed as he walked into Trey’s room, standing behind us, we all turned to face him.
“Myah! It’s Ragin’ Riddle!” Grim shouted before jumping into my arms, nearly making me drop my notepad and pen.
“I am not ‘raging.’ I will be perfectly pleasant if you obey the rules!” Riddle closed his eyes and huffed before opening them again and looking at Trey, walking closer to Trey’s bed. “How are you doing, Trey? Can I bring you anything to eat or drink?” Riddle looked worried.
“I told you, Riddle: you don’t need to fuss over me like this.” Trey chuckled.
“But it’s my fault you got hurt.” Riddle made a face that reminded me of the time he had cried.
“What? He didn’t tell us that part!” Ace rubbed the back of his head as he looked towards Riddle.
I dropped Grim down to the ground and began writing in my notepad as Riddle spoke.
“I needed to talk to him, so I went to the junior classroom at lunch. And then… I tripped on the stairs, Trey caught me and pushed me back up as I began to fall…. Trey never would have slipped if he hadn’t caught me when I was about to tumble over.” Riddle closed his eyes and crossed his arms.
Trey sighed “yeah, but if I hadn’t, you would have just broken your fall with a flight spell. It was stupid of me to intervene. So you don’t owe me anything.” Trey argued back.
Riddle opened his eyes again “still, I…”
Ace tapped on his shoulder before pulling me closer to him “hey, y/n, d’you think…?”
I nodded before whispering back “yeah. This may not have been an accident. This is sounding more and more suspicious as the story goes along.”
Cater threw his arm around Riddle’s shoulder “Riddle, come on! It’s not gonna do anyone any good to have you harshing the vibe here. It’s lame that Trey got hurt, but you’ll rock the field that much harder to make up for him, right?”
Riddle nodded as he pushed Cater’s arm off him “well, I suppose that’s true.”
“All right, peeps, we should let Trey get his rest. Out, out, out!” Cater pushed us out “c’mon to the lounge!” Cater kept pushing us.
We all walked to the lounge before we continued our conversation.
“All right, Cater. Was there something you didn’t want to tell me in front of Trey?” Riddle spoke as he sat down.
“You’re always a step ahead of me, Riddle.” Cater grabbed my arm and pulled me down next to him “I get the feeling y/n & co. know something about it. Want to fill us in?”
“Right, so…. A bunch of students have been getting hurt around the school in suspicious accidents, such as burning, getting pushed down stairs and so on, so on, Crowley asked us to investigate… We think Trey is the latest victim..”
“Ah… so the headmage asked you to investigate.” Riddle rubbed his temples lightly before looking back up at me.
“I knew it. Grim coming by for a get-well visit? That’s just plain sus.” Cater laughed as he wrapped his arms around my waist, leaning his head on my shoulder.
“I must admit that I found the circumstances odd as well. I’ve had Cater looking into it for me.” Riddle hummed lightly.
“And I found out that all of the victims have been talented players like Riddle and Trey.” Cater smirked.
“To be clear, it wasn’t as if I had been pushed, or that I had tripped. But I did feel a peculiar sensation, like… my body was moving of its own volition.” Riddle leaned back into his seat.
“The other victims said basically the same thing!” Grim shouted as I wrote down Riddle’s words.
“I believe we can safely surmise that potential Spelldrive tournament players are being targeted.” Riddle hummed and crossed his arms, staying upright in his seat, not letting his back touch the seat.
“You think someone is causin’ accidents to take our threats from the tournament?” Ace’s face scrunched up as he let out a curious hum.
“The whole world will be watching. A good performance can make a player’s whole career. It’s no surprise that some would resort to underhand methods to even the odds.” Riddle gave Ace a glance and spoke in a matter of fact type of voice.
“Sure, but it doesn’t make much sense. I mean, you’d know if you got pushed off the stairs by a gust of wind magic or somethin’, right?” Cater rubbed the back of his neck, putting his phone down on his lap, keeping his hand on my hip, rubbing circles into my hip.
“Certainly. I felt no external force.” Riddle shook his head.
All of this reminded me of something, I stood up and kept writing in my notepad of the conversation unleashing infront of me.
“And some of the other victims had accidents in the classroom! How do you explain that?” Cater crossed his arms, watching me pace around the room as I wrote away in my notepad.
“The culprit can tell us all about it when we capture him. And we intend to help you do that.” Riddle turned to me and I quickly wrote down that Riddle was joining us in the investigation.
“Myah? YOU’RE gonna help us? What’s your angle?” Grim huffed.
Cater slapped the back of Grim’s head “you offend us, sir. One of our housemantes was injured—why wouldn’t we help him find justice?” Cater rolled his eyes while picking up his phone, I wrote that Cater had joined us in the investigation.
“We’re all house-buds here. Count us in.” I wrote that Ace was joining in.
“He’s gonna pay for what he did to Trey!” I wrote that Deuce was going to join, Deuce slammed his fist into the palm of his other hand in a punch motion.
“You two seem awfully enthusiastic about this.” Riddle shook his head.
“Ahhh… I get it. You’re gunning for that open spot on our team, aren’t you?” Cater laughed as he stood up, slapping the shoulders of Ace and Deuce with a laugh.
“Heh. was it that obvious?” Ace rubbed the back of his head with a chuckle.
“N-no! That had nothing to do with it! I just want to avenge our housemate!” Deuce threw his arms out in surprise.
I laughed “stop talking like Trey’s dead.” I put my notepad and pen away and picked Grim up off the floor.
Riddle sighed “Fine… Your performance during the investigation will be taken into account.” Riddle stood up from his seat and crossed his arms.
“Woo-hoo!” Deuce and Ace cheered, I laughed and kicked at Ace’s legs, causing him to fall, his head shot up and looked at me as if I had just shot him, he stood back up and pushed me back with a huff before silently looking back at Riddle.
“Now, if we’re going to apprehend this culprit, we need to stay a step ahead of him.” Riddle hummed.
“And we’re gonna do that HOW, exactly…?” Grim hopped around in my arms slightly.
“By predicting which student will be targeted next and covertly following him. Should the culprit strike, we will protect the target and then immediately pursue the attacker.
“A stakeout, we can do that, but how do we know who will be targeted next?” I hummed out, waiting for an answer.
Just then, Cater wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me fowards towards him, our crotches touching, his finger went up and pulled my chin up and made a kissy face before speaking “I’ve got this, y/n.” Cater laughed before letting go of him and continuing “I’ve already identified a number of potential targets from among the most promising players. I’ll form a group on Magicam so we can coordinate our efforts and then give you access to the album.”
A chime came from deuce’s phone as he opened it up “whoa, Cater, this is a ton of information!”
“Now, let’s move!” Cater shouted before walking towards the lounge door and looking back at us.
“Let’s nail this creep!” Grim threw his paws up and almost flug himself out of my arms.
“Oh! Hold on, I’m gonna go check up on Trey and ask him a bit more questions, maybe see if he needs anything else!” I smiled at them before pushing Grim into Deuce’s arms and rushing out of the lounge and up the stairs towards Trey’s room.