Painted With Roses (Oreki x Chitanda)

Chapter 10 - A Familiar Face

There was another hysterical scream during the first night of the Kyoto field trip. It startled a majority of students, fear masking their faces. 

"I'm going!" Fukube declared, running down the slippery, dark street.

"W-Wait! Fuku-chan!" Ibara yelled, following after him. 

"Oreki-san! We must go there too!" the raven-haired girl said, her face near his. "Please Oreki-san!"

He raised an eyebrow and sighed. If I say no, she'll get closer and closer to me, he thought. "Let's go then," he replied, walking ahead of her.

Chitanda's face brightened, her enthusiasm and determination almost out of control. She raced after him, smiling childishly. 

"HOUTAROU!!!" a voice yelled suddenly, waving their hand up in the air. "Come here!"

He lowered his head and moved forward, finally reaching the person who yelled his name earlier. "What is it?" he asked.

"Look!" Fukube pointed at a window from one of the villas', stained with blood, saying, 'One of you will die in 15 minutes' in unclear letters.

"Satoshi," Oreki called him.

"Yea?"

"When was the time when Yoshima got struck by lightning?"

Fukube hesitated for a while and found his answer shortly. "Around 11:45."

So the culprit will try to harm a student after 15 minutes. Someone will be severely injured or die at 00:15, Oreki thought, trying to solve something out in his head. 

"Notice that this time, it's different. The window was also shut tightly like before, but inside, the student was stabbed with a sharp dagger AND he was holding it, too. There were no signs of cracks on the glass," Fukube reported, the sound of his notebook's pages flipping back and forth. "Oh, by the way, the student's name is Tabachi, class 2-C."

Lightning, daggers, 2-D, 2-C... All windows, shut...

"The culprit's next target is in our class, Satoshi." Oreki stated, starting to stroke his hair gently. 

"EH!?" all three of them yelled, shocked. 

"Why is it going to be in 2-B, Oreki-san? I'm curious!" Chitanda inquired keenly. 

"From 2-D to 2-C. It'll be odd if the culprit skipped to 2-A. So there's a high chance 2-B's next."

"But nearly everyone is out from their shelter. So the culprit has no choice but to attack them on public." Ibara said, folding her arms.

"Hm... Maybe." Fukube agreed, his fingers covering the lower part of his chin.

"Satoshi, try to see if all the students in our class are here. And be quick, or not the time given will be a waste."

He nodded and rushed towards the crowd of students, counting one by one. Oreki glanced at his watch that was kept in his pocket, calculating the remaining time. 9 more minutes.

Before anyone could even notice, Fukube arrived in no time. "Everyone is here, thankfully." he informed, relieved.

"That's good." Both Chitanda and Ibara sighed in relief as well.

"But that doesn't mean the culprit will stop himself or herself." Fukube reminded them, and they became quite alarmed like before.

When he turned around, he expected his friend to be standing at the same spot as before, but he saw nothing but air.