Chapter 8 Of Sour Droplets!

Chapter 8 of Sour Droplets!

[Chapter 8 - Reconcile]

“Haha, you should’ve seen how worried these three were for you.” An’s dad laughed as Akito’s face smirked.

“Yeah, you should’ve seen Kohane.” Akito said with a laugh. “She wouldn’t stop calling you, even though Toya and I told her that you weren’t picking up calls.” 

In response to Akito’s usual teasing, Kohane’s face flushed from embarrassment, but all An could do was laugh, the mug of hot tea she was holding warming her hands.

“And when we heard that Ken had gotten a text from a random number promising you were alright, we could hardly believe it.” Toya said as the plate of warm biscuits and gravy infront of An continued steaming. “We rushed here to wait with our nerves fried, and we’ve been here ever since.” 

An felt a sense of Deja-vu as she stared in the brown reflective liquid contained in her white mug. Her disappearance was just like when she ran and hid in the construction site. Her dad was so worried then too… but Nagi…

“I’m sorry I made you all worry so much.” An said, her face reflected in the mint tea. “But thank you all for looking for me.”

“An-Chan…” Kohane trailed off, her face full of worry. An was confused at her concern until she realized she had her fingers tightened around her teacup. Knowing their relationships, it likely wouldn’t be long before they found out everything that happened.

“Speaking of, who was that unknown contact that your dad mentioned?” Toya asked, changing the topic after sensing An’s discomfort.

“Yeah… was it like, a friend of yours or something?” Akito asked, following up.

And just like the crescendo moment of a concert, An ended up telling them everything that happened, bring the suspense that had somehow built up crashing down. By the time she finished, her hot tea had cooled enough for her to drink it, so she took a sip and began eating her breakfast.

“So that’s where you were…” Akito said, gritting his teeth. He likely was angry at himself that he wasn’t there for her in her pain, but he couldn’t blame himself. No one could. After all, An hadn’t told anyone but her dad that she was going to visit Nagi-san’s grave.

“You know you can rely on us, right Shirashi?” Toya asked, his left hand over his chest.

An took a bite of her food, the leftover warmth flooding her mouth. “I know, but I was hoping if I could hide all of me feelings, I wouldn’t feel that hurt anymore. That sadness.” She stared down at the black plate, holding her silver fork in her right hand. “I know that pain and growth are part of human growth, but.. I can’t stop thinking about her. She was everything I wanted to be and more. But now she’s gone yet this pain in my heart resides.” As An talked she felt her heart start to throb with pain slowly, and she knew that likely the more she talked about what she went through, the more suffocating the pain would feel. But she still pressed onwards.

“But I don’t want to keep hurting and I especially don’t want you guys to have to pick up the excess I leave behind.” An admitted, taking a sip of her tea and feeling the liquid sliding down her throat. “If I bring down the team because my lack of progress…” She trailed off, not exactly knowing what to say. 

“What are you talking about?” Ken asked, drawing An’s attention. “You were the one who made your group right? There’s a reason everyone here has pretty much nominated you as the leader. It’s your fiery determination and aspirations that spur you guys onward, paving a brand new world ahead for you.”

Talking about her goal to surpass RAD WEEKEND made An think about Kanade’s words again. Go beyond… She silently repeated to herself. But could she really? It was a night based on such an intense feeling… and it felt like surpassing that night would just be disrespecting Nagi. 

“Mhm!” Kohane continued, her bright eyes sparkling with determination. “I know that sometimes you’re worried about falling behind me, but honestly, you’re my idol!” An’s eyes widened in surprise, caught off guard by the words that came from Kohane’s mouth. “You give me a thing to aspire to be. A goal for me. And for me, it’s more about my growth and not beating you. Without you here, I’d never be the person I am today!” 

Kohane grabbed An’s hand and her heart started to race. Despite it being just a touch, she could feel the intense passion and feeling that Kohane was passing on to her. It was an expression of desperation, as she tried to link their shared feelings.

“And it was you that helped me break out of my dad’s expectations.” Toya mentioned, his eyes filled with a warmth alike to Kanade’s. “Without you I’d be spending much more sleepless nights next to the piano.”

“And for you, you’ve touched more hearts than you could imagine.” Akito vocalized, his voice firm. “I don’t think I share another bond with someone else that’s as strong as yours, and that’s helped me through so many moments. Overall, none of us could be here without you. You’re just as important as every single one of us.”

An smiled, her eyes watering as happy tears pricked at the base of her eyes. “You guys…” She murmured quietly, the words softly rumbling her throat.

“Sorry to interrupt,” An’s dad spoke up, handing her his phone. “But you’ve got a message.”

She took the phone from him, wondering who had texted her. Though as soon as she looked at the screen, a smile quickly broke out against her face.

“I think I know what we’re doing for our next event.”

~

A/N:

Sorry for not posting for a while! I’m still here, don’t worry just really busy in life! (There’s one more chapter left after this.)

Chapter Two of Sour Droplets!

[Chapter 2 - A Helpful Friend?]

When An woke up, she wasn’t laying sprawled out on the cold hard sidewalk like she thought she would be. Instead, she was laying on top of a blanket that was covering the mattress under her. Her head was delicately placed on a pillow near the back of the bed, and the room she was in was immersed in darkness. 

However two sounds continually rang through the room. The click of a mouse and the clack-clack of a keyboard.  

An craned her kneck upwards to look towards the sound, her eyes straining through the darkness. There, in front of her, was a girl with blueish-white hair that went a bit past of her waist, seemingly composing a song at her computer.

The bright screen reflected in her blue eyes, and her fringe was tucked to both sides, save for a long section in the middle. However a few seconds after An caught a glimpse of the anonymous girl, she turned to face An, her blue eyes softening.

“Ah, you’re awake.” She said, her soft and sweet voice flowing together like honey. “How are you feeling?”

The girls voice was full of concern, but An couldn’t help but feel embarrassed that a completely stranger had found her in one of her most vulnerable moments, even if she was unconscious.

“Yeah I’m fine.” An rushed, wanting to leave as soon as possible. “Sorry for troubling you, I’ll just-.” An stood up off the bed and found herself crumpling to the ground in pain, causing the girl to quickly jump out of her seat and rush over, helping An into the bed again.

“Are you alright?” The girl asked again, the worry evident in her eyes. “When I found you, you looked like you were in a lot of pain, so you should probably take it easy.” The girl stood up after An was back to laying on the sheets. “I’m going to go grab you a glass of water, I’ll be back in a second.”

An just watched her go, unable to move herself as she hugged her legs to her chest and buried her face in her knees. Now that she was awake thanks to her fall to the floor, she could roughly feel the pain she was in. Of course she was still feeling sleepy and a bit disoriented from waking up in a new place after passing out, so that was likely numbing some of the pain as a result. 

Speaking of passing out, how long did she really sleep? The curtains in the room were closed, ensuring that no light would get in, which An was thankful for. She felt like she wanted to cry as her throat became scratchy and raw with tears pricking at her eyes. After all, she was in so much mental pain, why’d she have to suffer phyiscal pain too? She was a good person, it wasn’t fair!

And she hated being a burden to others. Having people pick up her slack like the anonymous girl that was taking care of her just wasnt something she wanted others to do. She wanted to get good on her own, and it wasn’t fair to make others deal with her excess.

She hugged her legs closer to her, her heart aching.

It was a marvel that the girl had heard An move at all. After all, An had only moved her head slightly and somehow the girl had heard her, which took An by surprise. To have your ears be that sensitive to sound… An just couldn’t fathom it. And the girl seemed to gracefully move throughout her room like she memorized the layout, which likely meant she spent most of her time in her room.

The thought alone made An shiver. She couldn’t imagine sitting in her room alone for that along in the dark, much less the strain on her eyes. At this point An couldn’t tell if she was amazed by the girls situation, or if she was scared of her stay-in-her-room talents.

Soon though, the girl re-appeared, a glass of cold water in her hands. An couldn’t lie, the cup looked enticing. After all, she had sweated most of the fluid out of her body by sweating on her aimless run, and it was clear her body was demanding to be replenished.

“Here, take this.” The girl handed An the clear glass of water which she accepted greatfully. “You lost a lot of fluid while you were asleep, and I wasn’t able to replenish any of it. So I thought I’d hydrate you while you’re awake.”

An just nodded, wanting to ask so many questions. Where was she? How long had she slept? But all she could manage from her parched chapped lips and dry scratchy throat was…

“What’s your name?”

The girl smiled as An drank the cold water, the liquid sliding down her grateful throat.

“I’m Kanade.”

The deed that was never done.

Yandere simulator x Y/n detective

Tw: Mentions of m!rder, stalking.

This story was also in 2022 but a bit better. Also the stories working on getting a revise but just thought I’d share ^^

“But I'm innocent! You have to believe me!” Olivia Yew protested while she was being shoved into the cop car.

“Yeah, tell that to the judge.” One of the cops responded. “We found your DNA all over the crime scene.” The cop finally closed the door and headed towards me. “Sorry about this, we all know Olivia did it but she hired you anyway. I’m sorry she wasted your time.” All I did was nod back. “Well I'm supposed to be on my way now. Goodluck detective.”

The cop then turned on his heel and walked back to his police car with his shiny black shoes making noise on the dry pavement. Click clack click clack.

Even though everyone believed Olivia did it, I however, felt different. Nobody could be blamed until all of the pieces of the puzzle fit together and I believed that there were still pieces of the puzzle missing. Since I was already in front of the place where the crime was committed, I decided the best course of action was to ask the students there. The students of Akademi High.

As I headed inside, I made a list of who I wanted to ask: Gema Taku, Dairoku, Hana, Midori, Hokuto, and lastly Ayano Aishi. As I walked under the archway at the school's entry gate I wondered how I could prove Olivia's innocence. Sure we had found clothes that had her DNA but they weren't on the body. The body was likely in the incinerator since the evidence was located there, and there were traces of the DNA from the dead body in the incinerator. I turned on my heel as I rounded the corner. There was her DNA on the murder weapon, but what if that was fake? What if the murder didn’t go down like it seemed to?

As soon as my thought ended, I was standing in front of the gaming club. I grabbed the ice cold metal latches of the door and slid them open to find Gema standing and playing video games on his phone. When he heard me arrive, he looked up from his phone. “Why are you interrupting my gaming?!?!” He hissed angrily. “My name is y/n and I am a hired detective. I’m here to ask you a few questions.” He was obviously caught off guard after my introduction. I mean its not every day a detective for a murder scene waltzes right into your school. He put his phone away, stuffing it into his pants pocket then lifting his head up to face mine. “What were you doing today around/at the time of the murder?”

“I was in my room gaming but through the door windows I saw Ayano sign up for the drama club. Then she headed to the art room with the drama club gloves on.” He responded quickly, clearly excited to get this conversation over so he could go back to playing games on his phone. I made a mental note of what he told me, thanked him for telling me, then headed out to ask Dairoku. I knew Gema was telling the truth because the door handles were ice cold. If he wasn’t in the gaming room like he said the door handles would have been warmer. Although the information he gave me wasn’t particularly helpful it was good to keep any information you got on your detective job in the back of your head.

Soon I found myself in front of the spot where the school delinquents normally meet up. They weren’t there, so I sat under the tree with my back against the trunk. I hadn’t had water for a while so I opened my water bottle and took a swig. *POP* swish, swish. As I was taking a drink I heard one set of footsteps. Hopeful that it was Dairoku I peeked around the tree. But it wasn’t. It was Taro Yamada. As I saw him turn the corner I noticed there was another set of footsteps behind him. Although they were quieter and more faint they were definitely their. I hid myself a bit more behind the tree and that’s when I saw it… or her if you want to be more specific. Ayano Aishi. It was clear that Taro didn’t know that Ayano was following him but I was lucky that Ayano didn’t notice me watching her either. Every time Taro would stop Ayano would hide behind the nearest object while still still sneaking glances at Taro. She was creeping hiding and staring like…. like stalking! My breath sped up and I had to cover my mouth up to make sure I didn’t give myself away. I pulled out my phone very quietly and started recording from the camera app without thinking, As soon as Taro and Ayano left I took my hand off my mouth, stopped recording, and calmed myself down. What happened was totally explainable! Right? My thoughts raced as I tried to think about what I just witnessed. They must have been playing tag right? Yeah! And Ayano must have been the tagger and was hiding behind stuff because she couldn’t get to Taro from where she was! That had to be the reason, right?

Before I could think about it anymore I heard sets of footsteps heading my way. It was the delinquents! Excited to get to the conversation, since I had been sitting under the tree for a couple minutes waiting, I fumbled as I put my water bottle and phone away and got up to walk to them. My legs were happy to comply as I was giving them the stretch they need while I was heading towards the delinquents.

“Why the heck are you here? Scram!” Osoro the delinquents “leader” shouted at me in a irritable tone. I stood in front of them ready to start digging for information. “I am here to ask Dairoku and Hokuto where they were around/at the time of the murder.” “So? Why would I let you ask them that? Like I said, scram!” Osoro stubbornly continued. “You will let me ask them because I am y/n hired by Olivia for this murder case.” I showed them my detective Id to further my point. “You will let me ask them where they were around/at the time of the murder or I could report you guys to the police. I’m sure with your weapons and not complying to my questions that they would say yes.” Osoros face showed that he was caught off guard and I gave him a second to recollect his thoughts as I put my Id away in my pocket.

“F-fine, you can ask them.” Osoro stuttered. “But you only ask them, deal?” I sighed guess I couldn’t talk to anymore delinquents for this case but this is the best terms I could settle with with Osoro. “Deal.” I turned to Dairoku ready to hear his alibi. “Ok, I guess I’ll tell you.” Dairoku said clearly holding his mean language behind his tongue. “I had gotten to my meeting spot late while the rest of the gang was taking a bathroom break and the only suspicious thing I saw was Ayano carrying a long lumpy trash bag with the drama club gloves on into the area with the incinerator.” “Did you hear the incinerator open?” I questioned him. “No. But I heard some rustling and Ayano came back out with the lumpy bag and her drama club gloves on.” Dairoku mentioned sounding impatient. “Alright, thanks for telling me. “ I said then turned to Hokuto. “Where were you around/at the time of the murder?” “I was in the rear of our gang walking in to school and I saw Ayano walking around with a boxcutter stuck in a box and drama club gloves on.” Dairoku responded. “But that’s all I saw because then we headed out the door to our meeting place.” “Ok thanks for telling me.” I said as I added everything they had just told me to my mental note from before. “Well I guess I’ll be on my way then. Goodbye.”

As I headed inside I went through the information. Ayano had been to the incinerator but if there was a body in the bag she didn’t dispose of it in the incinerator. The only sharp object anybody had seen was a box cutter that was stuck in a box Ayano was carrying which was ironic because the victim had been stabbed to death. As I pealed down the hallway I noticed a very colorful poster so I stopped to look at it. It read:

DRAMA CLUB MISSING PROPERTY

IF FOUND PLEASE BRING THEM TO THE DRAMA CLUB AND NOTIFY THE CLUB LEADER

On the poster their was a picture of the drama clubs gloves. That was weird. Didn’t Ayano have the gloves? What happened to them? Oh well. I started walking again. I guess someone else must have had them at some point and lost them. I’ll keep my eyes peeled for those gloves though. After walking a bit more I found Hana. “Hello their Hana.” I said to get her attention. “I’m here to ask you a question.” “Omg are you one of my fans? I can answer your question. I DO take autographs!” Hana let her hand go limp a couple of inches in front of her and under her neck in a dramatic way. I sighed. She was clearly a VERY egocentric person.

“I’m actually not here for an autograph.” I said, she opened her mouth to speak but I cut her off. “I’m here to ask you where you where around/at the time of the murder.” Hana’s face clearly looked disappointed to not be able to sign her first autograph. I mean it’s no surprise. She’s classified as a “school” bully, who would be obsessed enough with her to track her down or who in school would be her friend? “Oh gawd you want to know something as drab as that? Ok, I guess I’ll tell you.” She said which filled me with relief. I was glad that she agreed to tell me. “I saw Ayano coming in to ask people to help her get her boxcutter unstuck from a box while she was wearing drama club gloves cause she was soooooo weak but eventually some loser who I don’t bother to remember the name of finally helped her. Then a couple minutes later she brought a lumpy bag of school clothes to Olivia because Olivia asked for some new clothes. That’s really all I have.” I sighed. Ayano had seem kind of suspicious before and was really our only suspect but I guess she was only bringing clothes to a friend and asked for help with a box cutter. “Alright thanks for your time. I’ll be leaving now.” Hana put some gum in her mouth and pulled up her phone. She blew a bubble and it made a loud pop. “Ok I guess whatever.”

I was so relieved to get the conversation with Hana over but at least I had gotten some information to add to my mental note in my head. But I was REALLY not looking forward to climbing up all the stairs to talk to Midori. I mean at least I knew where she was, but it was pretty easy to find everyone because they all stayed in one general area with their friends and groups and stuff. As I was climbing up all the steps my stomach growled. Wafts of food hit my nose which worsened my hunger. It was lunchtime for the students but not for me unfortunately. I wanted to ask all of the suspects first, so I persevered till I got to the roof. I climbed up the last set of stairs and pushed the door to the roof open. FWOOSH. The air up there barely smelled like food luckily, but I knew I would have to leave the roof at some point. As I was savouring the air I looked around for Midori.

After a couple minutes I found Midori gazing into the plaza from the roof. I made my footsteps loud so she could hear me walking towards her. Midori turned around once she heard my footsteps and smiled softly. “Hello I’m Midori.” She said “What do you need?” I gave a sigh of relief. Finally a nice person! “Hello I’m y/n and I’m here to ask you where you were around/at the time of the murder.” I responded. She frowned. “Sorry but I don’t have any information for you their. I was in the restroom playing games on my phones at that time. But um I guess I can tell you some gossip I heard to not make your trip up here worthless, but that’s all up to you if you want to hear it.” My heart dropped. She didn’t have anything? Were climbing up all these stairs useless? I wasn’t a giant fan of gossip but I was here anyway so why not? “Sure.” I said. Hoping that this piece of “gossip” was worth it. “Ok!” Midori said before transferring to her whisper voice. “Did you know Ayano Aishi has a crush on Taro Yamada?” I shook my head. “Well now you do!” Even though an average high schooler would get hooked or obsessed with gossip I was quite the opposite. I didn’t find gossip interesting and only listened to it when I had to like for work and stuff. But it was still nice to hear it right now so my trip didn’t feel so “worthless”.

“Alright well thanks for telling me that at least.” I said, not looking forward to going down the stairs again. “No problem! Sorry for not having any information again.” Midori said clearly, still feeling bad. “It’s ok!” I said. “Thanks for telling me a rumour to try to help make my trip not worthwhile. Sadly I do have to go now but I hope you have a great day!”

“No problem. I hope you have a good day too!” Midori replied. Then I turned to the exit to leave the roof and headed towards that direction. Click clack click clack.

As I left the roof and headed down the stairs I added the information Midori told me to my mental note. I had one more suspect to ask then I would hopefully be done with the case. Since Ayano didn’t really stay in one general area I decided to head to the nearby vending machine to get a mini lunch and then try to find Ayano afterwards. Or maybe during. Who knows, all I know was that I was hungry, but luckily I wouldn’t smell any food because the schools time frame for lunch time had ended. I walked to the nearest vending machine and pulled out my wallet. I started counting my money for the vending machine. 1$… 2$… 3$…. After counting my money for a bit I fed it into the drink and snack machine and pushed some buttons. Shwip! Click click. After I fed the machine my money I only had to wait a couple seconds until the two vending machines dropped my desired item. Bump bump bump THUMP! I picked up my two items and headed to the drama club, hoping to find Ayano their.

I peeked in through the drama club window to make sure I wasn’t interrupting anything, then I slid the doors open and headed in. After I opened the doors I closed them and headed to the back of the clubroom. In the back of the clubroom the leader, Tsuruzo was cleaning the drama clubs props. “Hello Tsuruzo!” I said, trying not to alert him. “Since Ayanos in your club do you know where she is? I need to speak to her.” Tsuruzo turned his head to me as he continued to clean the props. “Ayano?” He said making sure that we were talking about the Ayano Aishi who joined his club and not another Ayano. He shook his head. “I dunno. She disbanded after she lost our gloves. Sorry that I can’t help.” “Oh it’s ok!” I said. “It’s not your fault that you don’t know where she is. Well, good luck cleaning your club props but I have to go now, bye!” He smiled and said “Thanks, you too.” Then I walked to the drama clubs doors grabbed them by their latches, stepped into the hallway, and closed the doors. It was now time to find Ayano Aishi.

I decided to find Taro because Ayano always seemed to be “coincidentally” around him. I walked to the double doors leading to the school plaza and pushed them open. Their I found Taro sitting on the edge of the fountain reading a book, a couple of other students, and Ayano who was sitting on the edge of a bench that was closest to Taro. Finally, I had found her. I walked up to her ready to ask her some questions. “Hello Ayano.” I said to grab Ayanos attention. “I’m here to ask you where you were around/at the time of the murder.” Ayano turned her head to me as I sat down next to her on the bench. “I was in school asking people to help me get my boxcutter out of my box.” She answered easily. “By the time the murder was over someone had just helped me get my boxcutter out of my box.” The story matched up to what everyone else had been saying but I still had more questions to ask her. “Ok then what was in that lumpy bag you brought to the incinerator?” I asked her. “I can’t bare seeing trash littered around.” Ayano responded. “So I try to pick up as much as I can to burn in the incinerator.” “You still came out with some trash though. Why?” I questioned her. “The incinerator was full so I had to distribute all of my trash into different trash cans around the school.” Ayano said. “I didn’t want to wait for the incinerator to burn up all the trash while the other trash was laying about waiting for the incinerator to be empty.” Well this was a problem. I thought asking Ayano would solve the case but everything she said made her sound innocent! “Well I should be going now but thanks for telling me where you were. Have a good day.” I said and got up from where I was sitting. “You too.” Ayano responded blandly.

As I added Ayanos information to my mental note in my head I closed the school plaza doors so I could hear myself think a bit better. I threw away my lunch and soda and sat down on a bench in a quiet area. I reviewed all my information in my head and then I knew.

I knew who committed the murder and how it was done.

In the car heading to the judge trial I felt anxious. What if I was wrong? What if I missed some information? I took a deep breath and reassured myself. It was not likely that I missed any information. I asked someone who might have seen something suspicious from the roof since it provides a wide view of the ground. I asked someone who might have seen something suspicious from walking around. I asked two people who might have seen something suspicious around the crime scene. And I asked someone who might have seen something suspicious from another floor. And if I got something wrong I could have more time to solve the case or to review the information in my head again. Plus this wasn’t my first trial so I was used to doing things like this. I did trials so much I could easily slap information, accusations, alibis, etc, together without even thinking about it. I hadn’t gotten a case wrong so far and I wasn’t going to start wrong now.

When we arrived at where the trial was going to be held the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Everyone was at the edge of their seats. Who was guilty? Who was innocent? The world wanted to know. And I was about to tell them.

As I sat down in my seat in the trial room and looked over at Hana, Midori, Gema Taku, Dairoku, Hokuto, and Tsuzuro. Hana looked like she couldn’t be less interested in this trial, Midori was sitting straight up with a smile on her face, Gema looked bored, and Dairoku and Hokuto looked like they would rather be somewhere else. As everyone else was getting seated they brought in the judge, the jury, the prosecutor, Olivia as the victim, and Ayano as the defendant.

As soon as Ayano was brought in the room the room arose with chatter. A teenager? As a murderer? I could barely believe it either but it was her. Definitely her.

As soon as the jury sat down he slammed his hammer down. BANG BANG. “Quiet!” The jury yelled which quieted everyone. “Court is now in session. Detective please present your evidence.” Everyone turned their gaze too me. “Thank you jury.” I said. “I am here to accuse Ayano Aishi of committing murder. If you could please direct your attention to the witnesses.” Everyone looked over at the witnesses who stared right back at them.

“Gema Taku can you verify the fact that Ayano Aishi signed up for the drama club and headed to the art room with her drama club gloves on?” I asked which directed everyone’s attention to Gema who stood up so people could know who he was. “Yes I can. She did it right outside the gaming club while I was inside.” He responded to my question. “Thank you Gema. You may now sit.” I said before he sat down. “Dairoku and Hokuto can you confirm you saw Ayano with a boxcutter in a box and a lumpy bag that was taken to the incinerator?” I asked Dairoku and Hokuto who stood and directed everyone's attention to them. “Yes we can. We saw her do this with our own eyes.” They said in unison as they responded to my question. “Thank you Dairoku and Hokuto. You may now sit.” I said which they listened too and sat (for once in a lifetime). “Hana can you confirm that Ayano was asking for help to get her boxcutter out and that she brought new clothes to Olivia?” I asked Hana who stood up while blowing gum and typing on her phone. “Yeah gurl I can confirm it especially for that weakling Ayano who brought her nerd clothes to share with nerd Olivia who picked them up because she was so poor she could only buy clothes some loser made-“ “That will be enough Hana.” I said interrupting her. “All I needed was for you to confirm the information. Please sit now.” Hana sat with an irritated face because I interrupted her. But I didn’t care. “Midori can you confirm that Ayano Aishi has a crush on Taro Yamada?” I asked her as she stood up. “Yup!” She said cheerfully. “Thank you Midori. You may now sit.” I said, then I turned to Tsuruzo ready to get the question part of the trial over with. “Tsuruzo can you confirm that Ayano lost the drama gloves and disbanded from the drama club after that? And that you put up posters after Ayano disbanded about the gloves?” Tsuruzo stood after I turned to face him. “Y-y-y yes I can.” Tsuruzo stuttered. “Ok thank you Tsuruzo. You may now sit now.” I said before he sat. Poor dude. I thought. He must have a bit of people anxiety.

All of a sudden people turned to me in the middle of my thoughts which caused me to quickly spit out my next words. “Olivia can you confirm that you were the person who helped Ayano get her boxcutter out?” I asked turning my head to Olivia who was standing in front of a pedestal with steel handcuffs on her wrists. “Yes. Ayano walked up to me to ask for help after she was denied a couple times and I pulled her boxcutter out.” I nodded. I knew it! I thought. This piece of evidence made me more sure I was right. “Thank you for telling me Olivia. I will now move on to the proof part of the trial.” I said as I pulled out my phone. “Everyone if you could direct your attention to the big tv above the judges head” I hooked my phone up to my tv and played the video of Ayano following Taro. As soon as I put my video on the tv I looked over to Ayano. Her expression broke a bit for a quick second but then she recollected herself. I couldn’t even imagine how Taro felt since this trial was being live-streamed on tv.

After the video was over I disconnected my phone from the tv behind the judge. “This is a video I caught of Ayano Aishi stalking Taro Yamada.” I said. “I did some digging around after I pieced together the case. And it turns out that some people everyday only see Ayano leave after Taro has and a few people have even seen her stalking him in and out of school boundaries!” Everyone gasped. A teenager stalking another teenager? They couldn’t believe it! “Olivia,” I said her name all of a sudden. “You have a crush on Taro Yamada, right?” Olivia started blushing with a face as red as a tomato. “U-u-um yes.” Olivia stuttered. “Yes y-y-y-yes I do.” I felt bad for putting Olivia on the spotlight about something embarrassing but I had to push forward. “Ayano is known as something called a yandere. Which means they’ll do anything for their loved ones.” I said ready to expose Ayano. “They will even murder others just so they can have their crush all to themselves. So since Olivia had a crush on Taro..” I thrust my arm forward pointing at Ayano.

“Ayano tried to frame Olivia!” I accused. Everyone gasped. Murder? Framing? Stalking? What normal teenager would ever do this?!?! “Here’s the rundown of what happened.” I said. “Ayano joined the drama club to have access to the gloves given to members. With this she could freely touch anything without getting her dna on it. She grabbed a box from the art room, stuck a boxcutter in it, and started asking people for help. But you see, Ayano knew to ask people who would deny her in front of Olivia so she would take pity on Ayano and help her. When Olivia took the boxcutter out she left her DNA on it any Ayano killed a fellow student. Ayano didn’t splatter any blood on the clothes but she did on her boxcutter blade. Her teachers had told me she has been using all of her class time to study the human body. She was studying that topic to lead up to this moment where she would frame Olivia. She then put the body in a garbage bag and carried it to the incinerator area. When she got to the incinerator area she closed the gates to the incinerator behind her and she began to undress the body. After she had undressed the corpse she tucked the school uniform into the garbage bag she used to hold the body and left. Later she brought the school uniform to Olivia who had asked for a new one. Ayano got Olivia to touch it tricking her that it was a “sample”. After Olivia put her DNA on the clothes Ayano brought it to the incinerator area and layed the clothes and the boxcutter around the incinerator while she disposed of the body and the gloves in the incinerator. After she did the crime she disbanded from the drama club because she had no need for it anymore. But since Ayano had burned the gloves in the incinerator the drama club put up posters. And after Ayano had done the crime she just went about her normal school day until the faculty saw the blood on the boxcutter and called the police.” I finished. I popped my water bottle out and took some big swigs of water after saying the long story of what happened.

Everyone’s faces were astonished and they started talking. They just couldn’t believe it. She was a teenager after all. I looked to Ayano as I was sipping from my water bottle. She opened her mouth to speak but as soon as she did the jury slammed his hammer down and she closed it before she could say anything. “Quiet!” He yelled while smacking his hammer. KTHUNK KTHUNK KTHUNK! Once everyone was quiet the judge spoke. “The defendant may speak now.” Ayano opened her mouth. “The only reason I was hiding behind nearby things while following Taro is because we were playing tag. Sure its normally a thing kids do but Taro and I like to do it every once and a while to alleviate stress since we did it as kids. And since Taro is really good at running away from taggers I tried sneaking up on him.” Even though it wasn’t a great defendant statement I could see it being good enough. I mean high school is well, high school. It can get stressful at times. “Also why would I give Olivia a ''sample”? I would have just given it to her right then and there. It's not like i'm running a fashion business or anything.” She did have a good point but she was the only one I had info on so I had to keep pushing forward. “If you were playing tag.” I started. “Then you should have tagged him at some point. Their is a lot of stuff around where you were “playing tag” with Taro so you could have easily gotten close enough to tag them. And you had to give Olivia a “sample” because if you gave her something else to touch to rub her finger prints on you couldn’t be 100% sure her finger prints would rub off on to the clothes.” After I had finished talking the judge made his decision. “Taking all of the facts into consideration it is clear beyond any shadow of a doubt…” The judge said drawing out his voice to make his answer more suspenseful. “That Ayano Aishi is guilty.” When Ayano was declared guilty I threw a tiny party in my head. I had continued my perfect judge trial streak with this trial. A couple of seconds later after Ayano was declared guilty two cops came in, took the handcuffs off of Olivia, and placed them on Ayano wrists then took her to their cop car outside. After Ayano left everyone left the trial room and the mood seemed to brighten up a little. I mean we had just gotten rid of a killer and made the world a little brighter so their should be some rejoicing right? That’s why I hosted a party at my house.

“Thank you so much!” Olivia said as she hugged me with a plastic cup of punch in her hand at the party. “If it wasn’t for you I would have been stuck in that prison cell foreverrrrr!” I laughed a tiny laugh. Olivia was able to make you laugh with her dramaticness unlike Hana. Who I invited sadly but fortunately I also invited Tsuzuro, Gema Taku, Midori, Hokuto, Dairoku, the rest of the delinquents, and a lot more people! They were here to celebrate the trial. And that detective y/n continued a streak of not getting another trial wrong. And I wasn’t going too start now.

Detective y/n out!

Chapter 9 of Sour Droplets! [LAST CHAPTER]

[Chapter 9 - Delicate Strings] POV SWITCH - Kanade Yosikai

Getting an invitation to an event to a concert was not what Kanade had expected. But she had been composing a lot of songs in her house, and maybe the song she was stuck on when she met An took up more space in her head than she thought.

Speaking of An, Kanade and her still kept in touch. At least, kept in touch enough for her to know that after a lot of texting Kanade from her dads phone, An got a brand new phone. She said the case was dark blue with yellow stars on the bottom, a representation of her hair. She also mentioned that it wasn’t her who bought the phone, but her dad, which made Kanade smile in response.

After a while a month had passed, marking a milestone in Kanade and An’s friendship. And then it became another month. Well, a third of the month.

It was the end of the third week of September while Kanade was sitting in her desk chair, composing notes as usual. She had her left hand on her keyboard, and her right hand holding a pencil. It was usual for her to play notes one at the time and then write whatever composure sounded good to her. But right when Kanade started to focus, her pocket shifted, indicating that her phone vibrated.

Kanade blinked, wondering if she should ignore it or not. But she just sighed and pulled out her phone, the case pressing against her palm. She could always come script more of her music later if she had to step away for a second, and she wasn’t really that focused anyway.

As she powered the screen on, a faint smile broke onto Kanade’s lip. It was an invitation from An to one of her concerts for three day from now. As the phone screen continued to glow, she used her fingers to type out a message to her.

“I’ll be there, I promise.”

After sending the message Kanade exited the app and dutifully marked the date in her calendar before stuffing her phone back into her pocket. She was lucky that that day ended up being free for her, and she knew that she had to attend. After all A was her friend, so she’d be there to support her no matter what.

It didn’t take long for the date to roll around and Kanade’s phone to alert her of the incoming event. So when the starting time got closer and closer, she put her favorite sweatshirt on, her comfiest sneakers, and headed out the door. 

The initial light was blinding as the wind whipped her hair around, but eventually her eyes adjusted to the brightness, revealing the crisp blue sky and puffy white clouds. Kanade inhaled, savoring the fresh pure air. She had already visited her dad a bit earlier in the week, so she hadn’t been out in a while. But to be honest, Kanade enjoyed the nice change of pace very rarely. So with the fabric of her sweatshirt clinging to her skin, she made her way to the event, the cool air coating the inside of her nostrils.

When Kanade arrived, she made her way to the front of the large crowd. Of course she never had watched the event RAD WEEKEND hosted ,(even though she planned to since An was interested in it), but even so she was surprised that a group of people this big didn’t overshadow RAD WEEKEND already. Still, meeting their goal or not, this meant that their popularity was growing, causing them to get even closer to the result of hosting the biggest street event in history.

All of a sudden though, the lights dimmed and the crowd shushed. The spotlights turned on, illuminating An in the fluorescents.

“~~🎶!” An’s voiced blared through the mic, rocking the stadium. “How good would it have been if it were a dream?

Another spotlight illuminated a second figure behind her, highlighting her sand blonde pigtails. “I still dream about you, like going home to get something you forgot.”

Kanade knew that that person was someone named Kohane. An had introduced all of her partners to Kanade over the phone, so as the spotlight illuminated another person with blue hair, she easily identified them as Toya. By the order of the spotlights turning on that easily meant that Akito would be next, but Toya wasn’t going to let himself be out-shined by the last person that hadn’t been revealed yet.

“Dust off old memories, that there is happiness that will never return.” His fiery grey eyes conveyed a sense of determination, but Kanade was smiling the whole time. They were singing the song that she decided to give them. The one An helped out with when they first met.

“Finally you told me, the dark past that I hid without being able to talk about it.” Akito’s passion-infused voice rang around the stadium and the crowd went wild, cheering. 

Yet even though Kanade was silent, she could feel a warmth in her heart. She had helped An through a tough moment, and helped save her with a song. With composing songs for Mafuyuu, making things to touch people’s hearts seemed kind of hopeless at some points. But she had helped lessen the weight on someone’s shoulders, getting them to stand on their own two legs. She hoped that they learned they weren’t alone in this world, even in their darkest moments. And as for Kanade? Maybe the world really was full of hope.

[END]

Here’s the MEIKO sprite for my two star card! I don’t have a very good photo editor, so a bit of the green screen remains, but this is the best I could get. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

Red waterfalls [part 2] 🌸

Love is as sweet as candy…

After almost reaching sempai Ayano was teleported to a black room. She had no idea where she was. But she was still covered in blood with a knife. All of a sudden a black spider like demon floated toward her. A hole opened in what looked like her face and she started speaking. "I know what you did." She relaxed her shoulders, fingering the outline of a knife in her pocket. "And?” “I want to work with you." “Why?” “Because you helped create me.”

Create a spider demon? What? When? Did a sin of hers make a demon or someth-. Wait-. Is this the demon Oka summoned? That was the only explanation.

“How?” “I will make eliminating rivals easier. You only have to say a few words and there out of your hair. And if you ever need me, I’ll be behind a tree around the entrance in your school.”

Ayano couldn’t believe her ears. But she barely had any time to process because she was teleported to another Akademi high. That everyone must have also been teleported to. But since no one freaked out when they saw her, they must have had their minds erased but that demon. She walked in and the school was identical as the one in the other world she was in.

And so was the students. She still felt the same about sempai, and he was still the same. And after confirming that everything was the same the rival elimination was, in fact, surprisingly easy. And she ended up actually getting her sempai! But she knew that sooner or later blood would have to be spilled and waterfalls would have to turn easy.

But right now this era has no murder. Let’s call it….. the era of peace.

The end