Chapter 8, A Curious Mystery

Angel Mort, a restaurant in Okinomiya, known for many things that make it so great. It's coffee, the baked goods, the desserts. But most importantly, the cute girls in maid outfits. It was a place that Keiichi and the others went to at times to hang out at and such. It's also the place where Shion, the trickster sister, works at as well. After their victory against the Oshima High School, they decided they were going to said restaurant to celebrate, since Shion gladly decided to get them a discount on the cakes. A well deserved treat for them to say the least. The only problem was that they were still waiting for one person. Keiichi.

Mion, Rena, Satoko, Rika and Shion had gotten a table and waited for him to be back for about thirty minutes. When he wasn't back by then, they decided they'd get their orders, and that he'd just have to get his full after them for jokes. After an hour they began to get worried for him, hoping that he hasn't gotten into an accident. Unfortunately it had been almost two hours, and they were now on full concern mode of just where Keiichi was.

Sighing heavily, Mion stood up. "That's it, I'm going to find him" She spoke out.

But before Mion could go, Rena held her arm to prevent her from moving any further. "Are you sure? Maybe he's just running late?" Rena somewhat questioned to her.

"Running late? He's been gone for hours. It's not like him to do something like that." Mion responded. "Keiichi's dumb, but he's not stupid to pull that kind of joke." Shion nodded to her sister's point.

"Wait, you don't think it was the Oshimas that went to get revenge on him, do you?" Satoko asked, looking somewhat worried.

"Of course not, they're not sore losers." Shion noted, slightly calming Satoko down.

"Well either way, I think we should look for him" Mion insisted to them. "What do you think Rika?" She turned to look at the young blue-haired girl.

Rika was sat by the end of the booth seating by the window, her head rested on her hand as she looked outside. As she gently tapped a rhythm with her fingers on the table, she was in deep thought.

Today for her was eventful of some sorts. She hadn't expected much to happen, since at this point for her she had lived so many lives that anything that happened was all the same. And usually either way, it ended up with them being dead. But for some reason today, she was still surprised. She had expected Keiichi to bribe Koichi so that he could win, as he did last time. But...he didn't. Instead he single-handedly beat the Oshimas with just one home run, making them surrender. Though it was unexpected, she didn't know why she was surprised anyways. Of course she knew that Keiichi was able to to miraculous things that helped change the tide in her favor. However, there was one thing she hated about him the most that annoyed her, which was the fact that he usually never did anything with that effort. Of course when he did it ended up greatly for her and the others, but it was rare. The point is that he has the potential to do so much, yet wastes it by being dumb. It's harsh to say, but it's true.

But it wasn't just the win that surprised her. No, it was what he did that got most of her attention. For instance, a ball being hit by a bat at no matter how much speed should not have been able to have gone both so fast and so far by that single hit. Perhaps if you had the powers of a God, then yes of course, but Keiichi Maebara is a human, not some demi-god. She knew that for sure. All she could recall before it happened was that she saw Keiichi's mouth moving, as if he was perhaps speaking to himself? Or maybe she was looking too far into it? Either way, he managed to do something impossible, and she wanted to know how.

"If only Hanyuu was still here..." She muttered to herself. Rika had not seen Hanyuu for a while now ever since their argument. But after all, it's not like Rika cared she was gone. In any case she was glad she had some peace and quiet in her head after hundreds of years. She felt like she could actually thing for herself after so long. But right now, she would have at least liked to know from her on how their only male in the group did what she had never seen him do before.

"Rika?"

She turned her head to Mion. "Hm?" She asked innocently.

"I'm saying we should look for Keiichi. Do you?" The pony-tailed tomboy repeated to her.

Rika did agree that Keiichi has been gone for too long to be late. For all she knew, he could have been corned by some thugs. Or...no, but what if 'she' got her hands on him? But, it's too early, right? Why would she go after him? What reason?

Now Rika really was worried. She may think that Keiichi can be stupid, he's still her friend. And the last thing she'd want is for him to be murdered so quickly by the likes of that evil bitch. Yeah, she agreed. They should definitely go looking for him.

"Hey hey, there's no need for the search party. I'm here."

But before she could say anything, Keiichi had finally arrived, looking somewhat both tired and annoyed. Rika finally stopped worrying, instinctively smiling at his arrival.

"Were you guys seriously gonna go looking for me? Talk about being impatient" He simply remarked at the girls, folding his arms.

While everyone else was glad he was fine, Mion got annoyed at his little remark, stomping over to him. "Impatient? You were gone for-" But before she could continue, she was able to get a closer look at him, lightly gasping in shock. "Keiichi, what the hell happened!?"

From her response, Rika's smile quickly faded as she and the others looked closer at him. He had a couple of bruises on his right arm, and one on the left of his jawline. He had a patch on the right of his forehead, and a plaster on the middle of nose, including a minor black eye. He looked like he got in a fight and got his ass kicked. Well, he did, but they didn't know that, and Keiichi would feel better in not letting them know that. Either way, their worry had come back, especially Rika's.

Keiichi froze in place, trying to think of what to say. Since this was an emergency, he got a helping hand. "Hanyuu" Keiichi called to her in his head, hoping she would respond. Thankfully, she did. "Quick, think of a way that could have gotten me injured."

Hanyuu panicked for a second, trying to think of something. She replied, "Um...y-you fell down some stair!"

"I fell down some stairs" Keiichi responded to Mion.

…...

…...

Silence, plain silence, as they looked at him as if he had an antenna growing out of his head, and they didn't know to either call an ambulance or an electrician.

"Nice one" He replied to Hanyuu sarcastically.

"Au au! I'm not good at thinking up injuries! They're painful and bad and I hate them!" Hanyuu yelled back in a fit.


Luckily for Keiichi, things had managed to die down after the whole ordeal a few minutes ago, and everyone at the table were continuing on like they usually did when they came over to the cafe. Well, almost everyone.

"I can't believe how irresponsible you were." Mion stated.

"Yeah, I get it" Keiichi replied, at this point tired of hearing it already. Mion was for some reason persistent today with her remarks at him. They weren't the usual teasing that she did to annoy him, but more like a concerned mother who's annoyed at their kid. Sure she had a reason to, but it was still a pain for him to listen to. Because he was late he had to sit next to Mion. So the order from the end to the call on his side went him, Mion and Rena, and the opposite side was Satoko, Shion and Rika. Not that he really minded, but it just meant he'd have to deal with Mion for a while.

"Mion is right though, Keiichi-Kun," Rena added, "You could have just said you were in a fight." After he had tried to ask Hanyuu for an excuse for his 'accident', he just decided to tell them that he got in a fight and got his ass kicked, though he didn't explain the specifics, such as the mystery man and Natsumi. It seemed to go better when he explained it as that, though It also didn't.

"Exactly! You didn't have to hide it from us ya know!" Satoko exclaimed, folding her arms and huffed in annoyance. This is exactly what he meant. Now they felt like a bunch of sisters that are getting at him for getting himself into trouble. Though he did admit, it was nice to know that in some way they care for him, even if they are the most vicious devils of Hinamizawa.

"You know, if you tell us who they are, we could just send someone to kill them." Shion said with a smirk on her face. Keiichi got chills down his spine, looking at her with way more concern than they were for him. That was way too blunt!

"S-Shion!" Mion exclaimed.

Shion chuckled to her sister's reaction. "I'm joking, don't worry." She said.

"That was one hell of a 'joke'..." Keiichi muttered.

As both Mion and Shion went on, Keiichi looked over to Rika for a second, as she seemed to as well. For a moment it was just what seemed for them to be awkwardly staring at each other, though Rika broke the stare, looking over at the window shyly. It was weird for Keiichi, since he'd never seen her like this before. In fact it was like she was a different person. He knew that he'd managed to catch her attention during the baseball stunt he'd pulled off, though he still hasn't managed to be able to talk to her yet. The main reason why was because he wanted to talk to her alone. No, not in a creepy pedophile way, but it was mainly because for one, he knows that both him and Rika are the only ones who know what's going on. Well, technically he still didn't know, but he had a basic idea to say the least. It's why he needed to know more from her on just what the hell was going on. The other reason was because he didn't want the others involved. Sure, the village is their home, but for some reason he could tell this was something they might not understand. Not just that, but he felt like this was his responsibility as well, as if he has to make up for his mistakes. One thing was for sure, and it's that he's going to solve this mystery, even if it costs his own life.

"Hey Mion, I was wondering something." Satoko said.

"Hm? What's that?" Mion asked her.

"When Keiichi got hit on the head in his fight, do you think he got dumber so we can take advantage on him?"

..Excuse me!?

"What's that supposed to mean!?" Keiichi exclaimed in annoyance. The nerve this little goblin had to just say that as if he didn't notice. If she was lucky, he wouldn't plan for the next game they do to put her in one of the Angel Mort outfits as punishment.

Satoko took notice of his annoyance and smiled. "You're right, I'm sorry Keiichi" She apologized. Huh? That quickly? Keiichi grinned to this sudden apology from the loli. He guessed that she was growing up after all.

"You clearly didn't lose any more brain-cells than you previously lacked."

Huh!?

He looked back at Satoko to see her smirking maliciously, laughing at his expense. He took back what he said about her. The next time, he won't just get her to wear that outfit. He'll make sure it's the tightest one she'll ever wear.

Keiichi grit his teeth in frustration of the blonde girl, "Now listen here you little brat..."

As Rika watched Keiichi and Satoko go at it, she couldn't help but pull a light smile. Their constant bickering would never get old to her. Even if she'd seen it a thousand times. Though for Keiichi, she was more worried than ever when she saw him in the state he was in. covered in bruises and plasters, acting like nothing was wrong. It wasn't like him to get into fights of that sort. Or even lose a fight. It grew more and more onto her about what was going on with him. She wanted to make sure he was fine. But she just couldn't keep an eye on him at all times. At times like this she wished Hanyuu was around to at least do something useful.

"You're worried about him too, aren't you Rika?" A sudden question came from Rena, somewhat startling the blue-haired girl. It was more sudden to her that she knew what she was thinking about, though when she thought about it she was pretty obvious with the amount of times she kept staring at Keiichi, and only once she was caught by him. It was odd right now that Rena was even bringing this up, since she was across the other side of her, but since the others were distracted, she supposed this was a better time than any for now. She couldn't really say anything but just nod in response to Rena.

"I feel like something is off with him lately." Rika started off, "But I don't know how I can find out what's wrong." She might as well be honest right now, since she knows Rena to be someone who can easily tell when someone is lying, so there was no point in trying to hide the truth.

Rena nodded in agreement. "In that case, I have one idea. But I'll need your permission." An idea? In that case, Rika had to listen to her, even if it wasn't a good one. The ginger looked down at the table in thought for a moment, then nodded to herself, and looked back at Rika "Let me look over Keiichi for you, and report anything that seems off."

It was that simple. To just let Rena in some way spy on Keiichi, and to see what's going on with him. She would have immediately said yes, if she didn't think for a moment about the consequences of this. That consequence of when Keiichi murdered Rena and Mion. The worry that it would lead to that event again, that yet another chance would be ruined. She had just gotten back a slight chance of that hope today because of him, that they could at least try one last time. But what good would that be if their trump card, Keiichi Maebara, were to get himself turned by the syndrome, thinking that Rena was planning to kill him? But then again, what point would there be if they didn't at least try to do something? In fact what if someone is trying to kill him right now, and he isn't saying anything? That was a reason that Rika would be more concerned about, the thought that it wasn't just her life on the line now, but his too. If they had to risk the chance of another incident, then so be it.

The small shrine maiden looked up at Rena, a look of somewhat plead, "Please, look out for him." She begged her. Rena softly smiled, what seemed to mean that she accepted her request.

"Anything interesting you two are talking about?" Mion jumped in, her head laying on her hand.

"Yep. About how much I love the pudding here." The cute girl said, perfectly changing the subject. "Hauu, it's so cute." Mion laughed at her little antic, oblivious to Rika and Rena's previous conversation. Rika simply smiled, looking back out of the window.


Irie Clinic

Irie had been sitting at his desk for a while now, looking at his notepad as he stroked his chin. He was looking at the description he wrote down when asking Keiichi who had attacked him. Of course it wasn't the role of a doctor to be doing that, instead more of a detective's job. But for some reason he just couldn't stay out of it. This was Keiichi after all, the kid who miraculously won their team the whole game, and was a smart kid after all. He didn't know why, but it was more personal to him that Satoko looks up to Keiichi in her own way, as if he's similar to her brother Satoshi. After all, Irie still regrets the day Satoshi went downhill, and wasn't able to help him to his best, piled together with the horrors he'd committed long ago. So in a way, looking out for Keiichi in secret to him made sure Satoko didn't lose someone else important in her life, so she can still live the happy life she deserves, and maybe at least make up for his past.

For some reason though, it didn't make sense. From Keiichi's description of the assaulter, his uniform even, seemed that he was attacked by one of the Yamainu. But that couldn't be right. From what he knows from Miyo and Jirou, the Yamainu's task is to protect Rika Furude from any threats so Irie and Miyo can continue their research with her on the syndrome without the threat of the girl getting murdered. So why would one of their said employees and not just stalk a fourteen year old, but also go and beat him up for no reason? He also didn't recall any of the employees having long hair, or red eyes even. All the Yamainu employees he's seen look almost identical to each other. Unless of course...

He went over to the phone, dialing in Miyo's phone number. For some reason, he didn't know why, but he felt as if maybe Miyo's playing some sick game. Or perhaps that man she knows, Okonogiri, was behind it. Though he still knew that Miyo could at least have some, well, dark ways of doing things, to complete her goals. After all, he knew what could possibly come of the village one day if he ever approves of that order. Well, either way it was a stretch but he had to at least check with her just in case. He waited for a while till she finally answered.

"Irie?" Miyo asked.

"Yeah, Miyo, I've called up to ask you something important." He stated.

"Oh? What is it?" She asked, now sounding intrigued.

He thought to himself for a second of how he should ask, but decided to just be straightforward and ask her. "Have you been sending some of the workers to spy on the citizens by any chance?"

There was a slight pause until a slight chuckle could be heard from her end. "My, what a bizarre question" She joked.

Irie continued, "There's been a report about one of our men who spied on and almost beat to death a fourteen year old."

"Oh?" She said, only sounding a little bit surprised.

"So what I'm asking is if you told them to did it." He said, bluntly.

"Hmm" She thought for a moment until, "Nope. No idea what you're talking about." Now Irie was getting somewhat annoyed. The way she's acting is as if she has no interest in what he's saying at all. In fact, she sounds like a child who's done something bad, but pretending they didn't do anything wrong at all.

"This is serious Miyo. Someone got hurt" He stated.

"Of course, that is bad after all. But who say's it was one of ours? Maybe someone else likes to go out in grey clothes." She once again joked, sounding rather calm with the situation. "Besides, I made sure they wouldn't do anything like that at all."

'But how did she know?' 'What if it wasn't?' Was what Irie was thinking right now. He'd ask how she could be so calm about it, but he remembered that this was the woman who could dissect a corpse with glee on her face.

He tried to continue, "Yes but-"

"Now if there's nothing important, I have to get ready for tomorrow. Ta-ta~." She ended with a playful manner, ending the call.

So, was his intuition right? Was she the one behind it? Honestly, he couldn't even tell. Maybe she actually didn't know. Maybe he was overthinking it. But for some reason he had a gut feeling that she was playing around with him. He sighed deeply as he lay back in his chair, looking out of the window to the side of him. Hinamizawa looked rather peaceful from both an outside and inside perspective. It has such a great landscape, friendly people and such a history to it. It made him wonder why they were here for more than just for Miyo's research. And it was a cruel heartbreak when he remembered what they'd be forced to do if things were to go wrong.

He slightly looked over to the pills on the side of his desk. He usually did look at them from time to time, knowing that the moment the cops are onto him, he'd take them without a second thought. The last thing he wanted was to be caught by them, even if he was just a scapegoat. Again though, he just looked back outside to the view he was at least able to have.

"What are you up to, Miyo?"

End Chapter

A/N Finally, a new chapter!

Sorry for the wait, It's been one hell of a year for everyone, and let's just say a lot of things had happened that prevented me from writing.

This might not be what people were wanting or waiting for, but it's pretty much a sort of filler chapter/a break for Keiichi bless him, before it gets in somewhat deeper. Also it was a pain trying to think of a title that related to the story.

Also of note, I have a new story idea, something to do with Steven Universe, if that sounds interesting, so I might give it a try. And hell, maybe you'll like it too? Don't know.

Other than that, stay safe and have a Merry Christmas! :)