School's Out (self-insert #1)

Chapter 4

Naru cast the van a glance to make sure it hadn't been touched. "You never mentioned why you ran out of the room when Hara-san showed up." He said suddenly as we strode towards the old schoolhouse. Usually I would've been glad to be out and about on such a beautiful Saturday morning, but nowadays being forced to work with Naru took the pleasure out of some things.

I shrugged as I took a sip from my travel cup of ginseng tea. The hot liquid scorched my throat, leaving me speechless as I spluttered for a moment. "I saw a person." I managed after the tea went down. "Well, a black braid in the corner of one of the monitors. When I went to check, there was nothing but an open window."

He paused. "A black braid?" He asked. "You do realize that you saw that moments before Matsuzaki-san screamed."

"Yeah. Do you..." A faint memory surfaced from my Memory Fog: a bespectacled girl, her sable hair pulled back in two braids. "Oh."

"That might be jumping to conclusions." He reminded me, striding faster and leaving me behind. At least he waited to speak until I caught up with him, huffing and puffing. "We'll need to keep an eye on her. You'll also have to show me which monitor you saw it on."

We were silent as we raced inside, and when we reached the door of the base he yanked it open. "What's going on?" He demanded a little sharply. Peeking around him, my stomach jerked as I saw the sleek black braids. Kuroda.

"Naru!" Mai looked beyond relieved. "Kuroda-san was just attacked!"

He paused at that. Probably not what he'd been expecting. Maybe it was—like I said: he wasn't a very expressive person. "When did that happen."

"Just now."

I arched an eyebrow at the unruffled Kuroda. For someone who claimed to be attacked by a spirit, she acted very calm. Even Ayako's reaction to being locked in had been more understandable. Naru strode over to the screens, calm and collected. "Let's replay the video. Where were you?"

"You should've been a CCTV operater." I muttered. He ignored me, as did the others. I'm not sure Kuroda understood what I meant and Mai was too shaken by Kuroda's story to care.

"The second floor hallway."

We watched the monitors fuzz and refocus as he rewinded in time to see Kuroda enter the schoolhouse and turn to walk up the stairs, walking off the monitor as she reached the landing. "Right there!" Mai yelped as she pointed to the screen where Kuroda reappeared. I was vaguely reminded of The Grudge so when the screen fuzzed and went staticky, my stomach lurched and I flinched. Mai was just as pale. "What's that? Is it broken?!"

"Everything is operating as it should be, and the camera shouldn't be broken." He was still watching the static as if he could see something in the twitching grey and black lines. "This is very interesting."

"Yeah." I agreed as the image reappeared. The two of us watched as Mai entered the schoolhouse on the screen, then exchanged a glance. Kuroda had arrived before Mai. Convenient.

Mai was as clueless as ever, a trait that was a bit endearing. "What is?"

"When the spirit appears suddenly, the machine stops working properly." He explained, his eyes still glued to the monitor. I had looked away, not wanting to watch myself run like a derp. "I wonder if this was caused by a spirit, or trouble with radio waves, or..."

Or your show-off classmate messing with the footage. Lin was going to be mad to hear about a second student touching the equipment. Naru turned to Kuroda without warning, changing gears smoothly. "You mentioned it said something. What did it sound like?"