It was one of the biggest blazes since the forest fire near the shrine grounds. Somehow, a utility pole got covered by a shroud of fire that reached halfway up to the wires. Luckily, someone living in the area had bought a fire hydrant off the internet, and she used it to stop the fire from spreading further. If the fire had been allowed to touch the cables, everyone in the neighborhood would be stuck spending their nights in total darkness, no internet or TV. But that was, of course, the least of anyone's worries. Especially mine. Seriously.
The fact was, if left alone, that fire would have done more than cause a blackout. It could have spread to someone's house and burn it down. And that could have happened to any of our houses.
Naturally, I was very afraid and anxious. To cope with my anxiety, I tried to distract myself with some lighthearted cartoon shows that had a combination of cute and funny. Those usually get me to smile before I even notice.
I was, of course, in the clubroom, streaming those shows on my smartphone. It was one of those break days, normally meant for us to help each other out with our homework. I did all my homework already, and so were everyone else. Well, mostly. Omoyo was the only one of us who still had homework, and it was a huge workload.
As for everyone else, Kyouko and Yuna were huddled together, chatting about something over their phones. Mirai was giggling to himself while writing on a notebook that I was sure was going to embarrass him to death sometime in the future. And Isaneko was reading a business magazine. But in between, she helped tutor Omoyo who looked really embarrassed being taught by someone a year younger than her.
I took a deep breath through my nose and sighed.
It was truly another peaceful day for us. But even with what's happening around me right now, I couldn't dispel my anxiety.
Just so you know, I have these bouts of anxiety all the time, so it definitely wasn't foreshadowing for what's going to happen next.
There was an announcement broadcast, calling the members of the Community Service Club to the principal's office. None of us (except maybe Mirai) were sure what the summons was about. I didn't think we did anything to get in trouble or anything like that, but it was still nerve-racking being called like that. I'm sure some of the others felt the same way.
We shuffled out of the clubroom and made our way to the principal's office. To my surprise, there were two men in the office alongside the principal. Contrast to the principal who always dressed like a grandpa on a day out, the two men were dressed in suits and ties.
"Please have a seat," the principal told us. "These men are police officers and they would like to ask you a few questions."
We all exchanged looks. Everyone, even Isaneko, had uneasy eyes.
I was pretty scared. I know police officers are supposed to be good guys, but them coming to you to ask questions just didn't feel good to me. And I was right to think that this time around.
After they showed us their badges and introduced themselves, they went straight to the point.
Akira had gone missing, they told us. A few days ago, he suddenly left his grandparents' house in the middle of the night and never came back. His grandpa ran after him and searched the neighborhood top to bottom, but couldn't find him. They immediately called the police, but it wasn't until yesterday when he still hadn't returned that they began to act.
As they explained the situation to us, I could feel an unpleasant pressure rise from my chest to my head, and their words started to go in one ear and out the other. My mind became totally foggy as it sunk in that something happened to someone I knew. I didn't know what to think.
Finally, they got around to asking their questions.
"Has any of you heard from Akira, at all, in the past couple of days?" the officer in the gray suit asked.
We all shook our heads, no.
"Do you have any idea what might have caused him to just suddenly up and disappear like that?"
Again, we shook our heads, no.
And then it was the officer in the blue suit's turn to ask questions.
"What do you guys usually talk about when you hang out with each other?"
It was then that everyone's eyes turned to me. Following that, the officers quickly picked up that I was the one Akira talked to the most. At least, that was what I imagined after thinking back on that day.
You know, while watching those detective dramas on TV, I sometimes imagined what it would be like to be interviewed by the police. And in all those times, I felt a tightness in my chest and I would start fidgeting in real life. Even when I did my interview to get into high school, which was famous as just a formality, I was a nervous wreck.
Of course, that was all just the anticipation getting to me. When it came to the actual interview, I was able to keep calm and answer all the questions the interviewers gave me, albeit a bit jumbled here and there.
And it was the same with my interview with the police officer. I answered all his questions with complete honesty, hesitated only when I was unsure I remembered something correctly, and repeated my answers over and over again when I was asked the same kind of questions over and over again.
But really, there wasn't much to tell. Me and Akira only ever talked about the games we played. And the times we were together were spent mostly just playing those games on our phones.
And then came this question:
"You guys were at the shrine when that forest fire happened, right?" the police officer said. "Can you tell me what you all were doing there?"
"Ahem!" the principal cut in. "I don't see how that is relevant, Officer."
Annoyed, the police officer threw a dirty look at the principal and replied, "I will be the one to decide what's relevant and what is not."
Tensions flared between the principal and the police officer. But then that dispelled when the police officer's partner cut in with a calm, but firm voice, "Yannagi."
I glanced at the others, not sure what to make of the grownups' exchange. All I got was a few uncomfortable smiles in return.
I sighed and thought, well, nothing to it but to do it. After mustering some courage, I bit the bullet and spoke up.
"Uh . . . do I answer the question now?"
The two police officers looked at me, looking somewhat surprised, and then glanced back at the principal who, bowing his head in defeat, waved his hand and said, "Just go ahead."
And so, I told them how our club volunteered to help out the shrine with their festival prep. Since he was the one who arranged the whole thing, Mirai took over after that. He gave the officers details about what we were supposed to do, when it was all planned out with the shrine people, and even gave them a phone number to use to call the shrine and who to talk to there.
Eventually, the officers ran out of questions to ask, thanked us for our time and let us go. We all bade them polite farewells and headed back to our clubroom, as silent and grim as a funeral parade. It wasn't until we were all collapsed onto our chairs and the door locked that one of us spoke up.
"What was with that officer's attitude?" Kyouko complained. "It's like he thought we were perps or something!"
Omoyo glanced at Kyouko with a raised eyebrow and said, "We? Since when were you one of us? Not to mention, you were invisible the whole time, weren't you? So where do you get off complaining?"
Kyouko didn't appreciate Omoyo's prickly attitude and showed it with a scowl. It seemed like sparks would start flying between the two, but before that could happen, Yuuna suddenly spoke up. Using her smartphone's speech function, of course.
"The police officer mentioned the shrine," she said. "Why would he do that?"
"That should be crystal clear," Isaneko said. "I doubt any of us forgot what happened at the shrine."
She looked pointedly at Kyouko, who quickly turned away while wearing a super guilty grimace.
I blinked and asked, "What's the shrine got to do with anything?"
All eyes turned to me and after letting out a loud groan, Omoyo said, "That Yannagi guy thinks that Akira might be the arsonist."
Feeling a mix of both surprise, dismay and outrage, I cried out, "What!? Why?"
"Isn't it because he suddenly ran away without any reason?" Isaneko said. "Anyone would think that was mighty suspicious."
"But the arsonist's supposed to be a psychic with out-of-control fire power right?" I said. "Then there's no way Akira can be the arsonist! After all, his power is shapeshifting."
"What are you talking about, Oota?" Kyouko said. "There's no such thing as a shapeshifting power. Unless . . . he wouldn't happen to be a non-human, could he?"
I blinked. "A non-human? What's that?"
Kyouko replied, "Basically, non-humans are those creatures you read about in fairy tales and myths. You know, like werewolves, vampires, goblins, oni and so forth. They're are all real and they're the only ones with the power to shapeshift. Unless this friend of yours can change his shape anyway he wants, he must be a non-human. And if he is a non-human, then . . ."
She suddenly trailed off. I was curious about what she was about to say and asked, "Then what?"
Kyouko looked at me and hesitated, but ultimately answered my question. She said softly, "There is a chance that he's the arsonist."
"Wait, what? Why?" I asked. "Why does being a non-human mean Akira's the arsonist?"
My outburst might have come out too strongly, because Kyouko quickly and loudly whined defensively, "I didn't say he was the arsonist, only that there's a chance he was!"
"And I'm asking how come!" I shouted.
Isaneko suddenly stepped between us and said, "Oota, calm down. You too, Kyouko. You're both being too loud. Anyway, I also want to know why you think that Akira could be the arsonist. Can you please explain?"
Kyouko looked at Isaneko and took a few deep breaths. After calming down, she started to talk.
"Well, non-humans are all, without exception, omnikinetic," she explained. "I heard it takes some training, but most non-humans can use more than one power."
"Are you sure?" asked Mirai. "Where'd you hear about that?"
Kyouko gave him a glance and replied, "I heard it straight from a non-human himself. While not as much as the Shirogami Clan, the Azamume Clan has a connection to non-humans. A few come by my house to visit Grandma every now and then."
"I see," Isaneko said after exchanging glances with Mirai. "So, as a non-human, there's a chance that Akira has fire powers because he's actually omnikinetic."
"But that still doesn't mean that he could be the arsonist," I argued. "We still don't know for sure if he even has fire powers."
"But if we assume he does, thinking Akira could be the arsonist does make sense," said Mirai. "After all, like the arsonist, Akira doesn't have control of his power. And he's staying with his grandparents who live in the area where most of the fires took place."
"Those are just things you guessed when you were playing detective," I said. "You sounded convincing, and what you said made sense, but you didn't have anything concrete! And you don't have anything concrete now."
"How's this for concrete?" Isaneko said. She raised a hand and flipped up a finger as she counted. "One, he was there at the shrine when that fire happened. Two, he lost control of his power and transformed when that fire happened. Three, he ran away right after Mirai's detective show."
My mind raced as it tried to put together words for my mouth to use. After a bit of time, I managed to speak up again.
"Th-there could be a lot of reasons why he ran away," I said. "We don't know what happened after that."
But my argument was shot down, this time by Omoyo. "That detective show is definitely why he ran away," she said, resting her forehead on a bridge she made with her hands. "Back when Toshiro was showing off his guesswork, I sensed anxiety from Akira. I thought it was weird because it was a lot more than usual. Now it makes sense. He must have noticed a connection between himself and the arsonist. Damn it, I should have said something."
"Well? What now, Oota?" Isaneko asked. "Still not convinced that Akira's the arsonist? Granted, we could be wrong since this is still guesswork, albeit educated guesswork. I'm sure we're all willing to admit that much. But the possibility is still there. And ignoring that possibility won't help Akira one bit. It might actually hurt him."
I sat down and cast my eyes to the floor. Without meeting anyone's gaze, I spoke in a soft, barely audible voice, "What do we do now?"
There was a short pause and Mirai replied, "The only thing we can do, at least for now: go to the festival."
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