Chapter 7: The strangely ordinary missing item

The sun shone brightly over the window. Its rays woke me up. From the moment I opened the curtains, I knew the day was going to be a horrible one.

I did my morning routine: took a shower, brushed my teeth, changing my clothes, ate breakfast, fed our dogs, gave offerings to our gods, prayed at our small shrine, walked down the long stairs to the main road and rode the bus headed for the city. Now that I think about it, my routine wasn't as normal as I thought.

I departed from the bus upon reaching the school gates. Since it was a tourist bus, it had to return to the station. Once I entered the school, I went straight to the PMC room to meet up with everyone. And the first thing I saw was...

Mako and Suzuna arguing as usual. Only this time, they were arguing over which genre of music was better.

"Electro music beats any music out there!" Mako exclaimed.

"Are you kidding?! Punk rock's what's hot!" Suzuna replied.

For someone who preferred classic jazz, I couldn't care less about either of their genre.

Mako retorted, "A demon like you would never understand!"

"Well, I wouldn't feed on your fear even if I wanted to!" Suzuna rebutted.

That's right, yokai feed on human fear. Ever since the unification of humans and yokai, the consumption of humans were forbidden. To make up for that, the government enacted a "fear-only" act, where yokai are only allowed to eat human fear. It was signed a hundred years ago, when the city was founded. Perhaps what Suzuna did the other day was taking the delinquents' fears.

"Also, you should be calling me senpai!" she added.

"There's no way I'd look up on demons!" Mako responded.

"Why you...!"

Their argument only ceased when Mimi entered the room carrying some orange badges.

"What are those?"

"They're official PMC school badges." Mimi replied, "In order to show your being a council member, you must wear this at all times."

"Sweet!" Mako exclaimed, "It's orange!"

"Can't we change the color?" Suzuna asked.

"Sorry, but orange is the trademark for the PMC." Mimi explained.

She distributed the badges and we wore it on different parts of our bodies. Mako wore it on his neck, Suzuna wore it on her thigh, and I wore it on my wrists.

"This looks silly..." Mako commented.

"I'll just hide it under my skirt." Suzuna added.

Mine, on the other hand, wouldn't fit my sleeves. So I thought maybe I'd have a legit reason.

"Are you guys serious?!" Mimi reacted.

She showed us where to place it and followed her example. We pinned it on our left arm just as she did.

"This looks suffocating..."

"Yeah..." Suzuna agreed, "How am I supposed to attract my fans now?"

How did that fit into what I said?

"Alright!" Mimi exclaimed, "Now that you have your badges, we can get on to our real work!"

Real work? Did it mean we get to do public morals stuff? It sounded like a lot of work. I thought for sure a prefect only had to go around the school and monitor the halls. Guess I was wrong...

"Recently..." Mimi continued, "It was reported that a lot of items have gone missing in the girls' locker rooms. It would appear that they were stolen."

"Really? What were stolen?"

"I-it's not important!"

"Yes it is." Mako said, "I mean, how are we gonna find the missing things if we don't even know what it is?"

"A-are you gonna let me say it?!" Mimi exclaimed, flustered.

"Panties!" Suzuna suddenly exclaimed.

Then Mimi and Mako both turned red. It wasn't really something to be embarrassed about, but those two were too sensitive.

"W-why did you shout it out?!" Mimi asked.

"Oh, sorry..." Suzuna responded, "Actually, a friend of mine lost hers as well."

"You have to say that now?!" Mako reacted.

"As a matter of fact, yes." she replied, "It wasn't just her, apparently. Most of the girls in my class lost their clothes in their lockers. It also happened to other classes."

That would explain why the delinquent girl last time was pantiless. It was probably stolen from her, meaning she wasn't going commando on purpose. And there I was, thinking Suzuna forced her to strip and took a picture of it.

"Well, it obviously didn't disappear from nowhere. So how do we catch the culprit?"

"First, we have to gather intel." Mimi responded, "We have to ask students who recently lost their-"

Then she stopped midway. I guess she found it hard to say panties.

"Sure, but..." Mako reacted, "We can't just go and ask students if they recently lost their panties."

Then Suzuna argued while carrying a camera, "What's wrong with asking them?"

He responded, "Well, we can't just go and ask 'Did you lose your panties?' can we?"

"...Well, as much as I want to oppose you... you're right..." Suzuna responded.

Then all turned to Mimi and waited for her decision, but she covered her face and said, "S-stop saying it so much!"

Realizing that they've been saying panties too much, they stopped talking and apologized. Then we went back to the main topic.

"...So, again, how do we gather intel?"

We all thought of a different way of gathering information other than asking directly. Besides, us guys couldn't really talk about it with our classmates. So if direct interrogation won't work, then...

"How 'bout we let Suzuna handle it?"

"W-why me?!" she asked.

I whispered my reply to Mako, and he replied for me, "She's pretty much a social butterfly. All she has to do is start a conversation about panties,and eventually get everyone to talk about the incident."

Then Mako turned to me and asked, "Isn't that still suspicious?"

I whispered to him again, "She doesn't have to bring up the stealing. Eventually, someone else will bring it up. Plus, it's the locker rooms, so it's fine to talk about those kinds of things there."

Suzuna, on the other hand, commented on our way of communication, "You know, sooner or later, you're gonna have to speak to girls."

Again, I whispered to Mako, "I'm working on it!"

For some reason, I just found it difficult to speak to females other than Mimi and adult women. It's all thanks to that lewd video our uncle showed us.

"Still, that's not a bad idea, inu." Suzuna added.

"Guess we'll leave it to her, right inu?" Mako reacted.

"My name's not inu!"

After the briefing, we all went back to our classrooms and counted on Suzuna for the first phase of the operation. During our third period, Suzuna and the other seniors started their P.E. class outside. I had a clear view because I sat hear the window like any other anime protagonist. Mimi, on the other hand, was excused for monitoring the halls. Actually, it was up to Mimi to catch the culprit red-handed, since she had the authority. And I didn't tell her this part of the plan because I didn't want to ruin her plan of data-gathering.

Suzuna's class returned to the locker rooms after class. It was all going as planned...

Before we knew it, it was lunchtime. I decided to go back to the PMC room with Mimi, but something- no, someone- stopped me just as I was about to leave my seat: It was Kinbaku.

"Miss me?" he asked.

"Not really."

"How mean!"

To be honest, I totally forgot about him. I was to preoccupied with the committee that I didn't even bother remembering.

"What do you want?"

He smirked and said, "Today, I want cute panties!"

"W-why didn't you ask us that before we took a picture of a bare-"

"Oh, I'm not asking for a picture." he reiterated, "I want actual panties!"

"Huh?!"

Then everyone looked at me, disturbed. I probably shouldn't had reacted like that. I apologized to the whole class and turned my attention back to the white figure.

"How am I supposed to do that?"

"I hear the PMC is currently on a hunt for a panty thief. Why don't you get the thief to get one for you?" he suggested.

"You want me to conspire with the enemy?"

If you want that miasama of yours purified, it's your only choice!"

I couldn't believe that I had to go against my own members for my own gain. More importantly, It was odd how he had a plan ready. Also, how did he know that we were looking for a panty thief?

"Anyway, I said what I needed to. See you!" he said before taking off.

"Wait-!"

I still had question that needed answering. For one, how many times did I have to give him offerings until I was free of this miasama? Perhaps that question had to wait. The biggest question now is: How do I catch the thief and get the offering at the same time?