章 61: Searching for Answers
Sitting in class, Arata could hardly keep still. This had to be all one sick joke or nightmare. Even lunch was a pain, with his eyes shifting from left to right. The others were concerned for him, but he did everything he could keep them off his back. Right now, there was only one person he could trust.
"What's the problem." Erina met him right by their usual meeting spot. The big oak tree. "And what's up with using notes? You have my number." She held up the note he placed in her locker to his face.
"First off, my phone broke." He answered that part first. Things were going to be hard for him until he got a replacement. "More importantly… This." He held up the threatening note he received in the morning. Along with a picture that proved his secret.
"What?!" She couldn't believe her eyes.
"Is this some type of joke?" He accused her.
"No… Please I'd never do something like that again." She spoke with fear in her voice. That was enough for him to believe her.
"That's what I thought, but I just had to make sure." He calmed her down. "Now we should try and figure out who's behind this."
"I didn't think anyone else would want to pull this on you." She thought about it. "Do you have any ideas on who it might be?" Hearing about him getting blackmailed again. The feeling of guilt returned to her. Not too long ago, she was the one that made him suffer. Seeing him acting so anxious like this, It made her feel like she was reliving her dirty past.
"Hmm… Well given the first part of the message. It has to be someone close to us." He figured that would be the most logical direction to move. But why would any of them want to get rid of him? If it was about Yogi, he had already shown that he was supporting all of them.
"Maybe we should check out the picture." Erina believed that might lead them to a potential clue.
"Right." He looked over it again.
"Um…" She was judging him pretty heavily for this. Since it was of him holding his anime body pillow.
"Before you say anything, I'm perfectly pure. So get whatever you think I do with it, get it out of your mind." He wanted to nip that in the bud. This was humiliating him to no end.
"R-right." Seeing it, while it was weird. Stirred some feelings for her. Feelings of jealously. Immediately, she brushed those thoughts out as soon as possible. "I'm not really seeing anything that shows anything about them.
"Well, given that I was awake during this, that means whoever took this is pretty quiet." He contemplated for a moment. Trying to think who might fit that description. Then it hit him. "Yuki…"
"Yogi's cousin?" Erina looked at him confused.
"Right, that could make sense." He rationalized. "Everyone else should know that I'm not against any of them. But she's family, and she said she hates my name. Maybe she meant to say that she hates me."
"You're really still hung up on that?"
"Hey, Arata's a perfectly good name!" He crossed his arms and pouted. "More importantly, she knows my secret…" Arata Muttered.
"What?! How did she do that?"
"It's a long story." He lied, not wanting to admit how easy it was for that girl to find out. "But we should go look for her." He needed to get to the bottom of this quickly. Or else things would go rather sour, very fast.
Erina agreed, so they returned back inside the school. On the hunt now for Yogi's cousin. That girl was pretty small, and always seemed to do a good job at hiding away. So this wasn't going to be easy. Nor did the fact that a certain person stopped them while they were on their search.
"Oh, I can't believe I'm going to get the chance to see the both of you." It was Yurime Kurosawa, the school reporter. She was also the one to write the article about the school play.
"Hello." Arata greeted her. The last time he saw her, was a little before the culture festival. A lot had happened since then, even though it had only been a couple weeks at best. "I read your article, thank you for the kind words."
"Oh no, thank you for that performance, both of you." She praised them. "Even though you both were only in one scene together, it really enamored all of the students."
Neither Arata nor Erina felt like they put on such a great performance. Since there was more pressing matters on their minds.
"Right, well we kind of can't talk right now." Arata knew he was running out of time, small talk wasn't really on the agenda at the moment.
"Of course, I understand you might be busy. Hey, you should look out for my next piece." She seemed like she was bragging about something. "I think you'll really love it."
"Yeah, we will." Erina said, pulling on his arms. She had spotted their target, so it was time to strike.
"Yeah, sorry we gotta go. Talk to again soon, I hope."
"I'm sure we'll see each other soon enough." She giggled at them, as they ran off towards Yuki.
"Hmm… Why won't you answer?" Yuki was a bit out of the way from the rest of the students. She was looking at all the unread messages she had sent to her online friend. They hadn't chatted since the day before yesterday, and she was getting worried. The worst part, was that she was really needing their advice at the moment.
They had talked about it everyday since she discovered Arata's secret, how her pal wanted her to tell the truth. Today, she thought she had built up the courage to tell him, but was now getting cold feet. If only they were responding to her messages.
"Please, I hope you aren't mad at me." She was talking to herself quietly, but not quiet enough for Arata or Erina to hear.
"What? Trying to talk with your accomplice?" Erina spoke first, in a confrontational manner. "Maybe you're looking for more things to blackmail my friend over here."
"What are you doing?" Arata whispered over to her. "What's up with this sudden change in attitude?" The shock left Yuki speechless, she stood still as they chattered between themselves.
"She's not just gonna tell us. Plus I've always wanted to play bad cop." Erina whispered back to him. Arata didn't really think it was the play, but he went along with it and took the role of good cop.
"Look, I'm sure you love Yogi very much." He continued. "So maybe someone like me might seem intimating. But it's not like I'm going to take him away."
"Um… What are you talking about?" She was cowering with her back to the wall. No escape in sight.
"Of course you do. But we don't take too kindly with people trying to ruin my friend's life."
"Yeah…" He replied, even though her trying to do so was why he was here in the first place. "Look, you're young. So as long as you promise not to do what you're pulling. We'll let it go." He offered.
"I... still don't understand." Yuki's eyes darted between the two. They could be much more scarier than she was expecting. "Why are you both acting so strange?"
"We're not acting strange, and yes you do. I bet you're even talking with your source right now." Erina pointed towards the phone. "Tell us, and we'll let you go." She slammed her arm over Yuki, asserting dominance.
"Yeah!" Arata did the same thing.
"What are you doing? You're supposed to be the good cop here."
"S-sorry, I got caught up in the moment there." He backed off, nervously chuckling. "But seriously, tell us who you're talking to. If it has nothing to do with blackmailing me, then we'll let you go."
"It's… Um…" Yuki was shaking in fear. This was a terrible corner she had been backed into. "I'm just trying to talk to my online friend." She answered.
"About what?" Erina asked. They couldn't just accept that so easily.
"Well, the truth is. They haven't responded to my messages since yesterday. They always make sure to reply to me." Right now, she really wished she had that person's help in this situation.
"Here, give me your phone." She swiped it from her, much to Yuki's vexation. "Don't worry, I'm a master of getting people to reply to you. That's what I do with Yogi all the time." She bragged.
"Somehow I don't think that's a good skill to have." Arata looked on in irritation. "Also, don't just take someone's phone without permission. He already knew the feeling of someone else having your phone without permission. Not only was he almost exposed, but it resulted in a broken device for him.
"Yikes." Erina was dismayed at all the messages Yuki sent without a response. There was probably 20 or 30 unread messages. They all almost said the same thing. "I never took you for the obsessive girlfriend type." She noted.
"That's real rich coming from you." Arata insulted her. Yuki very meekly tried to get her phone back, with little success.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Just give it here." Arata was able to grab it from her grasp. "We don't need you ruining someone's relationships." He took a glance at the screen, curious to see what Erina had meant. There really was a lot of messages sent from her. Except, it was the username that caught his attention.
"Hey! What are you doing?" Yuki pleaded with him. That name… It could only be person with that name.
"You… You…" He was so in shock, he didn't know what to say.
"Please, don't judge me too hard." She looked down in defeat. Certain that he had discovered her secret hobby. Her heart sank, seeing him react to her username.
"What's going on here?" Erina wasn't sure what had gotten into him. "Is she really the blackmailer?"
"No." He finally gained his composure. "I don't believe this. You're…" He scanned around to make sure no one could hear him. "Loligoddess?"
"Y-yes." She wanted to cry. This wasn't how she was hoping her confession of her hobby would go. "I hope you don't think I'm a bad person."
"Bad person?!" That was the last thing on his mind. "Yuki, I'm Haremlover58." Arata never expected the person standing before him, would also be the same as the friend he made over the internet.
"What? Is that really true?"
"Yep." He said, going on to prove it. "You once told me about your first day in high school. You lost your hat, and fell into a river trying to catch. All the kids made fun of you, and you were known as-"
"Okay I believe you." She really didn't want to relieve that memory again, or that nickname either. "But then, if you're really him. Then how come you haven't responded to my messages since yesterday?"
"It's a funny story, but my phone broke while I was on cleaning duty." He answered. His deposition changed completely, now glowing at being able to see the person that he had only ever talked with. "I'm so glad that we can finally meet." He smiled at her. Forgetting about his problems for a moment.
"Yeah, I'm glad too." She blushed. He wasn't what she expected to be behind the screen. Arata was a bit more… cuter than she was thinking when they chatted. "And I hope that means you don't think I did whatever bad thing you thought I did."
"Unfortunately." Erina leaped into the conversation.
"How is that a bad thing?" Arata asked.
"Because that means the real blackmailer is still out there." That was a problem for the both of them. With very few leads, time was running out for Arata.
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