Copyright Notice: This story is an original work by VANTA_kun. All rights reserved. Do not copy or redistribute without permission.
Shuhi stared at the laptop screen without blinking. Haruto's location wasn't showing anymore. Akari told her that he lost contact but…
"Give me that!"
She reached forward, took the laptop directly from his hands and pulled it closer to herself and searched through the tracking interface herself.
"Wait."
Her finger moved across the touchpad.
"It's pointless. I did everything I could." Akari noted what seemed obvious to him but Shuhi didn't listen.
"No, no, no it can't be! What happened to him suddenly?" Shuhi seemed very much frightened at the sudden disappearance of Haruto.
"Wish I knew." Akari sighed.
Shuhi stopped moving her finger. She looked at the screen again, then at Akari, and finally back at the screen. The same information remained there. She took some minutes to check the screen recordings of Haruto's work but nothing unusual there.
For several seconds, nobody said anything. Rina remained beside the unconscious police officer near the closet. The room, which only a short while ago had been filled with casual conversation and the clicking of Akari's keyboard, suddenly felt strangely small.
"Did he betray us?" Rina was the first one to raise voice.
"What do you mean "betray"?" Shuhi asked.
"I know it sounds wrong but we can't rule out the possibility." Rina began explaining.
Both Shuhi and Akari's eyes were locked on her.
"What if…he ran away? As he found his new found freedom." Rina continued.
"Impossible!" Shuhi cried.
"We can't say for sure! He always didn't like any kind of evil scheming and complications. I would say, he is the kind of person who would want to throw all the skills he learned from the organization and lead a normal life. He might have ran away from us to start a normal life." Rina explained.
"No matter how much I don't accept that, I can't get fooled by my emotions. He might really…" Shuhi thought.
"No! I disagree with the theory." Akari opposed, "He might be a lover of simplicity but he is a good person as well. Good enough to help Shinichi without anything in return. He won't go away and leave us behind. He knows that would harm us. And besides, think about it!"
Akari turned at the two girls once, "If he really wanted to start a new life then he would have taken some other time to leave. Not when his digital footprints are in my laptop and the organization can easily get their hands on it."
"Shuhi chan!" It was Shuhi's mother, calling from the floor below, "Who are you talking to?"
"AHH..I hear footsteps." Rina said quietly enough for the other two to listen.
"Hurry, hide!" Shuhi said.
Rina took the unconscious police man's body over her back and went under Shuhi's bed. Shuhi then lowered two wooden slide doors from both sides, thus covering any way to see Rina.
Akari, on the other hand, locked himself inside the closet.
Shuhi's mother opened the door, "Is anyone here…oh." she was a little surprised to see Shuhi alone. She was sure Shuhi was talking to someone else. She left, letting the door remain half closed.
Shuhi quickly reached to the door lock and closed it. Then Akari and Rina got out.
"That was close, for real." Akari cleared sweat on his forehead.
Rina saw the man waking up a little. So she hit a spot on his head that made him unconscious again.
"Ya, nice." Shuhi raised a thumbs up.
Rina chuckled at it.
"Let's investigate it ourselves," Shuhi finally said.
Akari nodded. "That's what I was thinking."
Rina looked toward them. "Then I'll stay here."
Shuhi turned around.
"You'll stay?"
"Someone needs to watch him." Rina nodded toward the unconscious officer. If he wakes up and…"
Shuhi's expression became complicated.
"No need to say that. I know that very well."
Akari closed the laptop halfway and stood up. "We'll go to Haruto's last recorded location. If there's anything there, we'll find it."
Shuhi nodded, but her expression remained tense.
"Let's go."
They left the apartment together, leaving Rina behind with the unconscious police officer. Shuhi had barely stepped outside before she began wondering whether letting Haruto go alone had been a mistake. But she shoved that worry away. There was no point worrying about possibilities when they could still investigate what had actually happened.
While going down the stairs slowly, Shuhi turned her eyes to Akari. Akari met his gaze with the hers and understood what she meant. To be prepared for the upcoming challenge.
Not the investigation work. It was to leave this house.
Akari previously observed that Shuhi's mother was doing gardening on the backyard. So their way of getting out by jumping off from Shuhi's window got cut. Because if they did, they would land on the newly prepared bed and ruin it. That would cause suspicion.
If they jumped from the veranda, they would land on the main road, thus causing an awkward moment in the eyes of the people walking by.
So the only way out was the main door. Akari deduced all of it almost immediately after meeting Shuhi's gaze.
With small steps, they got down.
"Surely the tailing skills are working in the right time" Shuhi couldn't but get amazed by what they were doing right now. It had been for long time since used that skill. The last time she did it was when she kept and eye on Izumiya.
She took a glance from the side of the wall. Shuhi's parents were sitting on a sofa, watching TV.
"Can you believe that?" Shuhi's mother spoke, "I heard her talking to a boy. But when I checked, there was no one."
"Nah, I think you heard it wrong. She was talking to herself. She has reached that age. Kids do that often. Even I used to do it." Shuhi's father gave a different explanation.
"You think I heard wrong? Honestly?"
"Then how are you gonna explain that you found nobody in her room?"
They started a light quarrel.
Analysing the situation, Shuhi turned back and looked at Akari. She used hand signs to tell what they were about to do.
She put her idea into action by removing her hair band and putting it into pocket. The concentrated hair fell and spread.
Then she started walking in the direction of the door. Akari positioned himself directly beside Shuhi, matching the angle of her body. From the sofa, only Shuhi's silhouette was visible. Whenever she moved, he moved with her, keeping himself completely inside the blind spot created by her body and hair.
"Mom, dad, I am going out." Shuhi informed them.
"Don't stay out for long." Both of them said together.
"Ya, sure." Shuhi nodded. She then got outside.
Akari was free to show himself.
"Are you serious?" Akari cried.
However, Shuhi didn't listen and started walking. It reminded Akari that they had to distance themselves from the house or else Shuhi's parents would hear them. They walked for a minute. Akari followed her.
After coming far enough, Shuhi said, "Now speak."
"Are you serious? Why were you moving so much? You do realize that I had to copy all of your movements while maintaining my cover in real time, do you? I had never done it before."
Suddenly a idea struck at Shuhi's mins. An opportunity to crack a joke. She made up her mind to dodge Akari's questions. So she dropped her usual calm act and acted differently.
"You are worried about that? I thought you would enjoy every moment of that since I allowed you to get this close to a pretty girl like me."
"Oh shut up, will you! Ugh…so now what's our next move?"
Dead Logic © 2025 by Muntasib_Ihshan789 is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International