Seven

Maki was making a change. An active, conscious change. Like the letters wanted. And something, whether Emi was right, or not, would have been blamed on Hikaru. 

Kaho shot a glance at Ryota from across the room, who shrugged at her, returning to watching a video on his phone, Yuta peered over his shoulder, while Eiji crouched beside his desk. Hiro Sense had his eyes closed, still rubbing his temples. 

When the warning bell chimed, signaling that the teachers had to shuffle around, Officer Ueno came back into the classroom and ushered her newest student in, Sousuke, one of the class representatives. She reached back into her blazer and unfolded a sheet of paper. She looked from the paper to the class, who looked up at her expectantly. All except Honoka, who was scribbling notes from a book into an exercise book. The officer sighed and called out for Ayami Ichinose. Ayami got to her feet, bowed quickly and left the room with a flip of her hair. 

Leaving Shizuka without any of her friends around. She drummed her nails on her desk and sighed. While some of her classmates actually had sought out something to do, whether that be chatting, playing games on their phones of handheld games consoles, like Bejiro behind her, some were just watching the hands of the clock, probably willing Ayami to come back faster. 

"You'd think," Hisashi muttered, "That considering Emi suggested that these girls are missing, Ayami would have some decorum."

Mariah snorted. 

"Why are they like that?" Naseru said quietly, looking at the group behind him, "So mean, I mean. Emi is clearly upset about what happened to her friend, and whether she's misguided or not, it's not fair."

Kaho nodded, "I'm glad Maki went with her."

Naseru nodded. He looked over at Kaho and smiled, a small smile but it was there. A voice in her head, one that sounded just like Taiga, screamed at her to try and twist his arm and get him to try out for the basketball team, but it was clear from what he'd said on the first day of school that he had no interest in playing for Hanagawa. 

The classroom door opened, and Makoto came in, a large sketchbook under his arm, bulky headphones over his ears. He handed his Hall Pass to Hiro Sensei, who raised an eyebrow at him. Makoto rummaged in his pocket and handed him a sheet of paper pastel blue, the school logo was printed on both sides with a stamper, a note from the office. 

"Hey! Hey! Makoto!" Shizuka said, "Makotooooo?"

He ignored her. 

She got to her feet, swishing her hips and tapped him on the shoulder. He looked up, pulled his headphones forward off his ears. Shizuka swayed forward and back on her heels, her hands behind her back. 

"What's all that about with Officer Ueno?" 

Makoto rolled his eyes and put his headphones back on. 

"Hey!" she snapped, swatting his shoulder, "I was talking to you." 

He ignored her. 

Naseru smirked. Makoto opened his sketchbook, a large A3 mixed media portfolio from the art club. He didn't look up from the book. Instead, he produced a pencil from his pocket and started writing on a post-it note he'd stuffed on his newest page. He pursed his lips and put his graphite pencil to the page and sighed. A faint thrum of music came from his headphones. Shizuka glared at him, stomped her foot and returned to her seat. If Hiro Sensei was supposed to be demonstrating his authority, he was doing an awful job. 

Kaho turned to Mariah, "We should probably do something productive, huh?" 

Mariah reached into her handbag and produced a small reporter's notebook, "Want to play hangman?" 

Kaho laughed, "Sure, but I mean it!"

It was almost time for lunch, when Ayami came back in. She lingered at the front of the class as Officer Ueno proceeded to take Honoka, who had closed her book, out into the hall for her interview. 

"Ahem," Ayami said, clearing her throat at the front of the class. Kaho's eyes flickered up at her, but she didn't lift her head. With Honoka now out talking to Officer Ueno, she only had Sousuke to contend with. And Hiro Sensei, who seemed out for the count with some sort of migraine. 

"I said Ahem," Ayami stomped, "Officer Ueno and the other cops are here because Hikaru killed Sayuri on Monday. I said what I said." 

The class erupted into gasps and whispered speculations. Surely Hikaru couldn't have killed his girlfriend. Makoto got to his feet, tucked his sketchbook in his armpit, a few loose sheets falling from inside, not that he cared to pick them up. Makoto took the Hall Pass Hiro Sensei had written for him earlier back and walked out. Nobody stopped him. Kaho didn't blame him. 

Sousuke's jaw dropped. He looked over to Hiro Sensei, bug eyed and mortified. Ayami sneered at the class, chest puffed out as if she had just liberated the masses from some sort of tyranny. She grinned at the class. 

 Despite his pale, clammy face, Hiro Sensei did get to his feet, "Miss Ichinose. Outside. Now. Sousuke?" 

"Yes Sir!" Sousuke got to his feet and stood by the chalk board, acting at Hiro Sensei's eyes and ears while he did whatever he was going to do with Ayami. 

It wasn't Hikaru. All Future Kaho had said was that it wasn't Hikaru. Did that mean Sayuri was dead? Was she actually dead? Kaho felt sick. 

She grabbed her bottle of water and took a great big sip, looking back down at the hangman that she and Mariah had been playing; with the English alphabet, that way they were, supposedly learning. They'd barely started the round. It had been Mariah's go, and suddenly the dashes for the letters were easy to put together. Kaho had only just started; only asked after six letters; A, E, O, L, T and S. Only three of those letters had worked. She put a palm to her head, snatched the pen from Mariah and wrote the same message she'd spent days trying to decipher down on the page. Mariah lowered her head. 

"That was before- I didn't-"

"I know," Kaho said, "I-"

She was cut off by the lunch bell. Not even a class representative could keep all seventeen of his classmates away from both doors. Kaho grabbed her bento, eager for an escape from that classroom, to get fresh air and something new to look at, someone new to talk to. Kaho wondered whether Mamoru and Kikiyo's class was as disrupted as theirs was by the news. Then again, Sayuri was liked well enough across all three second-year classes. She was in the art club, after all, and they helped paint half the stalls for the school's cultural festivals. 

Kaho watched Naseru walk ahead of her, disappearing in the flock of students on their way to the canteen. She could have kicked herself. Just because Hikaru was the main focus of her Future Self's letters didn't mean Naseru wasn't important anymore. 

"Ah!" Kikiyo exclaimed recoiling from inside her bag, "There's something in here! What?"

She opened the mouth of the bag wide and peered inside, producing a can of coffee, the can of coffee that Mamoru had given her that morning. Mamoru smiled. 

Kikiyo cracked the can opened and knocked it back, "Who knows how long I've had that in there."

Mamoru shrugged, "Good thing canned coffee doesn't expire quickly."

Kikiyo nodded, rummaging in her bag for her bento. Her fist closed around something and she pulled it out. A white envelope. She frowned and opened it, inside was a wad of bank notes, each valued at 10,000 yen. There had to be at least twenty notes in there. Kaho's mouth fell open. She glared across the table at Mamoru. Kikyo's eye twitched. She followed Kaho's gaze; she had been the only other person not gawking at the cash and her lip curled up like a snarl. She shoved the notes back in the envelope and reached across the table, swatting him over the head with it. 

"The fuck do you think you're doing?" Kikiyo hissed.

"Oh," Mamoru said, his face blank, "I thought that was in my bag. Thanks Kikiyo." 

She scowled at him and crossed her arms, finally retrieving her bento box and opening the lid. Three smooshed cherry tomatos, a ham slice, mostly fat, and cold scrambled eggs waited for her. Kikiyo sighed and dug in. 

Mamoru disassembled his box beside her; fresh, char-grilled peppers of every colour of the spectrum sat, thinly sliced, on a bed of rice noodles. A sachet of soy sauce had been left on top of it. On the next layer was shredded chicken and sweetcorn. He tipped them on his noodles, and mixed it with the peppers and soy sauce. 

By the time Mamoru had assembled his meal, Kikiyo had already finished her whole lunch. 

Kaho opened her lunch box; she had four spring rolls, left overs from the previous night's dinner, a handful of candied strawberries, Himiko's most recent obsession and a bed of fluffy white rice, tuna and seaweed, essentially a disassembled spicy tuna roll. Taiga's favourite. Balanced on top of her spring rolls was a packet of roasted green peas. She grinned, they were one of her favourites. They hadn't had them at the supermarket for three weeks, what a way for her mum to tell her they were back in stock. She hoped she'd bought multiple packets, since Taiga liked them too, and the last time she hoarded some away in her room like a dragon, Tama and Rana found them and made a mess of the rug in the living room. 

Mariah and Ryota were eating fruit bowls from the convenience store, plastic-wrapped brioche buns sat in front of them.

"How's it all going in 2A?" Ryota asked, "Our class has descended into chaos."

"I'm not surprised," Kikiyo said, holding up a tempura prawn between her chopsticks. Kaho's eyes flickered to Kikiyo's bento, once again, her bento had been replenished, like magic. Just like it had since the first day of school. 

"Why?" Ryota asked, "Because she was in our class."

Kikiyo nodded, "And Emi is, too. I saw Itou take her outside. She looked really upset."

"Did Itou really take Emi out because she was upset?" Mamoru asked, "That doesn't sound like her."

Mariah nodded, "Seems she's turning over a new leaf."

"Ah," Mamoru said, and took a large bite of his lunch. 

"The officers have barely dented our class – Hikaru and Makoto were in with them for ages," Ryota said.

"Seems they've been going in for the kill with your class." Mamoru said, rubbing the back of his head, "We only have four more people to be interviewed, and they're all in the art club with her. With all three of them. We only had a couple of questions, when did you last see her, when did you last see him, how long have they been together to your knowledge, are they having problems."

"Sounds like Ayami was right," Ryota muttered, "She said they said they think Hikaru's done something."

"I'm sure they suspected Makoto, too. But their gaze seems fixed now," Mariah said, "Based on what Ayami said, at least."

"They suspect them because they knew her best," Kikyo shrugged, eating another prawn.

"Know her best," Kaho said, "They know her best."

"What did I say?" Kikiyo asked. 

"You said 'knew', like she's not coming back."

Kikiyo frowned, "I didn't realize – God. They really do think he killed her, don't they?"

Her friends nodded.

"Yeah," Mamoru said, "But I got a letter this morning. It said it wasn't him. I didn't realize what that meant."

"Mine said the same," Kaho added.

"Well I believe him then," Kikiyo said, "I believe he didn't do anything wrong. We should find him and tell him."

"They think he killed her, Kikiyo," Mariah said, "Ayami told everyone, although I appreciate the gesture, I really don't think he's still here. Anyways, I think Makoto gave Hiro Sensei a note from the office. Probably saying that he went home."

"Then we tell Makoto!" Kikiyo declared, "We tell Makoto that we believe he's innocent – and that we know Hikaru is too, we saw him, he's had letters, he'll know we know for a reason." 

"Right," Mamoru said, "Let's eat and then hunt down Makoto. He can't be that hard to find."