The Voodoo Club (self-insert #3)

Chapter 7

The hospital room was a tiny pocket of frozen time. I could see everyone trying to process his words: the Jusha is Ubusuna-sensei. The biology teacher's eyes had widened at this, but now she watched him composedly. In fact, they were watching each other, daring the other to make a move. If I hadn't read the manga, I would've been tempted to move to stand guard by Naru—what if she went berserk? Instead I remained where I was, watching the show.

Mai was the first to speak. "What do you mean, Naru?"

He didn't pay her much attention. "We've burnt all the hitogatas. Sensei, you made those hitogatas, correct?"

Ubusuna-sensei smiled. The expression hadn't changed, but that didn't make it any less terrifying. "What are you talking about?" She seemed genuinely amused.

"We gathered all the items for the Zuso and burnt them." He repeated. "At least the items that were in the empty lot."

"I'm not sure what you're talking about."

I revised my opinion of her. She, I decided, was starting to be more annoying than scary.

"If you have any other Zuso items that you used, please let me know." His eyes were devoid of anything aside from the usual coldness. "And please promise me you'll never do this again."

Her smile was gone. "I'm not the Jusha."

"Yes, you are."

"No, I'm not."

I groaned.

"There's no one else it could be." He said, flashing me a sharp glance. We weren't out of danger yet. "All of the victims didn't believe in Kasai-san's psychic power, which she demonstrated at the morning assembly. I'm sure the Jusha's motivation is related to that somehow."

"Really?" Her smile returned. "Then shouldn't you accuse Kasai-san of being the Jusha rather than me?"

If Kasai had gone pale before, the blood blood drained from her face now. Taka put a hand on her shoulder as she wobbled. "Kei-sensei..." she breathed, staring in horror at the last person she thought would betray her. Ubusuna-sensei's smile didn't falter.

"Kasai-san didn't do it because she knew the first victim's name, Murayama-san. Is that right?"

Kasai nodded, still shaken. "Yes..." she said softly. "In our sophomore year...we were in the literary club together."

Naru nodded. "If she knew the person who sat at that desk she wouldn't have to place the Zuso on the 'random person' who sat at the desk. She would only have to place it on Murayama-san." He explained. "So the question is why the Jusha placed the Zuso on the desk, rather than the actual person...and that's because the Jusha didn't know Murayama-san's name."

Ubusuna-sensei chuckled. "What nonsense...I could have asked someone what her name was."

Yeah, right. Like it was normal to ask who a random student was? What excuse would she have given? Wouldn't it just make her look more suspicious?

Naru, of course, was doing the talking and paraphrased my thoughts in a more elegant way. "At that time, many people didn't want to associate themselves with you and Kasai-san. Would you have felt comfortable asking what her name was?"

She didn't answer that. "Then...it must have been someone else. We are innocent."

'We', I noticed. Kasai wasn't fooled though and avoided looking at her one-time friend.

Naru shook his head doggedly. "It wouldn't make sense. Aside from the motives, why would the Jusha place a Zuso on Mai and me?" He let that question sink in. "Mai accidentally told Kasai-san I was an Onmyouji. Then Kasai-san told you. I heard that Kasai-san doesn't really talk to anyone else except for Mai and you. So that means there's no one else that could've known I was an Onmyouji. The same thing applies to Mai's intuition."