Help from the Shadows (Open Novella Contest)

7 (Jorogumo)

"Morning, Jorogumo!" Ayame cheerfully greeted me as I walked out of the guest room Mitsue-san had provided for me, wearing a light purple kimono Ayame had found in the shed. Akino whistled a bit upon seeing me. 

"Wow, you look stunning, Jorogumo," he praised me, causing me to go red in the face, sputtering a bit at that. Rau, Choiseung, and Chenhua, who were also there, all snickered happily. Ayame grinned cheekily.

"Wow, I can't believe that the sadistic Jorogumo could be so easy to embarrass," Mitsue-san teased while entering the room, bringing in Akinori's laptop.

"S-Stop it," I looked away while blushing, which only made them laugh harder.

"How I could be scared of you, I will never know," Choiseung giggled. I could only look away.

"Anyway, how do we start looking for that cloaked figure?" Chenhua reminded us of the objective of our gathering here, causing all of us to get serious.

"Maybe we could attract their attention by solving some cases? That way, we could also scout out possible hideouts for them to be at," Ayame suggested.

"Good idea," Rau agreed.

"But what kind of cases could there be?" Akino wondered.

"I'll look it up," Ayame grabbed Akinori's laptop and opened up Usuranura, where she looked up the latest cases.

"Oh, this one sounds interesting," I suddenly pointed out a post, which made everyone crowd around the screen.

"The Disappearing Vortexes?" Ayame repeated the title with a confused face on.

"It says here that people have been disappearing after falling into vortexes in the evening. Apparently, a fog appears at first, then a green vortex appears under them and they disappear. This is happening at the mountains nearby the town, and it has already been reported as a serial disappearing case," Choiseung summarised the case up after skimming through it. 

"That seems to be it in a nutshell," Rau nodded in agreement. 

"Well, we have to contact the witness who posted this and do some inquiries," Choiseung admitted. 

"I'll do it then," Chenhua stood up and grabbed the laptop before he sat down again and typed out a few things. We all waited, some of us, like me, Ayame, Mitsue-san, and the other members of the Youkai Tanteisha who were Youkai, a bit confused over what he was doing, while the other 3 were just smirking, as if they knew something we didn't. 

Eventually, he turned around and showed us the results of his hard work; the profile of the witness, Saki Machida-san. 

"How did you get that information?!" Mitsue-san looked amazed. 

"Hehehe, I used to study programming a lot as a side course to my medical course," He sheepishly admitted. 

"Wow!" Ayame had stars in her eyes as she praised him. Chenhua went a bit red, but he still gave a small smile in response. 

He's modest, but strict towards Choiseung. Probably his son. That sudden thought made me freeze. D-Did I just do an analysis?

"Hey, Jorogumo, you okay?" I was snapped out of my daze by Ayame, who looked a bit worried. 

"Ah, it's nothing," I waved it off. 

"You sure?" Choiseung's face of concern made me smile back at him. 

"Really," I nodded. 

"Okay then, everyone. If that's the case, let's start investigating the Disappearing Vortexes Case!" Akino cheered. 

"OH!"