Did I Just Solve This Mystery?!

The last five days had been pretty quiet. After Meteron, Servant of the Dark Master, was put in police custody, monster activity in Susaki was reduced to zero. This left me with all the time in the world to focus on my work. We still had to solve those missing persons cases, after all.

Before I left for work, Aichi interrupted me as I went to grab my backpack.

“Ayame, ~woof, you won't believe what I found!” Aichi said excitedly, with his little puppy tail wagging happily.

…

He then reached into his mouth with his little puppy paws and pulled a book out. It looked exactly how I expected a spellbook to look: old, tattered, pages with corners folded and/or chunks ripped out, bookmarks everywhere, and written in what looked like Latin, but I couldn't be sure.

“What is that?” I asked, trying to hide any hint of disgust or disapproval in my voice.

“It's the spellbook I had been looking for all week ~woof!” Aichi answered with glee. “It turned out I was carrying the book this whole time!”

I answered with a tiny hint of sarcasm, “Let me guess. You eat magic, so you thought eating an entire spellbook would keep you from going hungry.”

“Don't be silly, Ayame!” Aichi answered back. “Hollows can't eat books ~woof!”

I tried to sneak out the door quickly. My patience with Aichi's shenanigans for today quickly ran out.

“Okay, Aichi, I'll be back later. Have fun with your little spellbook…”

“Ayame, wait!” Aichi shouted, stopping me halfway through the doorway. “Before you go, there's a spell I need to teach you ~woof so I don't have to go looking for you all the time.”

Thinking that would be very useful, I decided to hear Aichi out. “Alright, what's the spell?”

“All you have to do is say Summon Hollow, and do a little bunny hop,” Aichi explained. “If you do that, I'll instantly teleport to your location ~woof!”

“Wait…” I suddenly realized. “Don't I need to be in costume in order to do magic? And don't you need to cast the transformation spell on me in order to be in costume?”

“Technically, no,” Aichi explained. “Remember that giant bubble ~woof? You weren't in costume when you cast that spell. The costumes just amplify your mana ~woof, allowing you to cast more spells and especially more powerful spells.”

Something wasn't adding up, and Aichi's explanation wasn't making sense to me.

“The other day, you said that the dancing is what amplifies my mana and the transformation spell was what gave me power,” I pointed out.

“Both of those things are true ~woof,” Aichi continued. “Technically, any spell you know can be cast without the costume or the dancing, but without a high amount of mana, those spells will be weakened. Wouldn't be very useful in combat, would it?”

I thought I understood all of that…

“Well, that's all I needed to tell you ~woof. Have fun at work!” Aichi told me.

•

Work started very early today, with me accompanying Sakamoto back to Kōchi in order to explore more potential leads.

“You know, Sakamoto,” I began our conversation, “the more I look at these photos of the missing college students, the more familiar they start to seem.”

“That's a common pitfall of the profession,” he answered. “The more you obsess over a case, the more you try to insert yourself into the lives of the people involved.”

“That's not what I meant, Sakamoto,” I corrected him. “It almost feels like I've seen one in particular. He seems like someone I've met before.” Now that I had thought about it, the student who hadn't been found yet did bear somewhat of a resemblance to Meteron. I wouldn't say that to Sakamoto, or even Mr. Kaneko, at the risk of exposing myself as a witch. Minus the hat and the raccoon mask, and he had the same jet black hair, the same jagged, anime main character hairline, and that same smug look on his face.

The last missing student was Meteron. I knew it had to be true!

“What exactly are you thinking, Tanaka?” Sakamoto asked me.

“After we're done in Kōchi, do you think we could stop by the police station back home?” I asked him back. “There's someone I think we should talk to. I think you were right about this case.” I had to tread very carefully here. One single misstep could expose me to the world. But also, one single misstep could put Sakamoto and others in potential danger.

“How do you mean, exactly, Tanaka?”

“I think that the last missing student is responsible for the disappearances,” I answered plainly.

Sakamoto immediately stopped the car, and pulled over to the shoulder of the road.

“How do you know this?” he asked me. The tone in his voice was even more serious than usual. I wasn't sure if I was going to be in trouble or not. That voice was very similar to my dad's you're in trouble voice. I had to very carefully craft my narrative here, sprinkle in and mix up some clever half-truths.

“There was another monster attack in Susaki a few nights ago,” I explained.

“Another monster attack?!” Sakamoto asked with a look that would have almost confused him for Mr. Kaneko. "How did we not know about this?!"

“Yep. I was too late to see if there were any witches in the area,” I continued, “but I was able to talk to the police afterwards. They told me they arrested someone who gave his name as Meteron.”

I then handed Sakamoto a picture I took of Meteron as he was being arrested.

“Now, Meteron is obviously not a real name,” I explained further, “but it could be an alias used by someone to commit crimes. I think this Meteron looks pretty similar to the missing student, just without the top hat and raccoon mask.”

After studying the picture and comparing it to the picture of the missing student, Sakamoto simply said, “This is brilliant… Miss Tanaka, you may have just cracked this case wide open.”

•

Despite the early delay, we made it to the next address on Sakamoto's list of potential leads on schedule. For some reason, a lot of the families afflicted by these strange disappearances lived on the outskirts of the city or out towards the mountains. The house itself looked nice enough, not too extravagant, but not too different from all the other homes out in the mountains either.

Sakamoto led the way. He knocked on the front door the same way he always did, gently but with a sense of urgency. He always said it was his way of letting people know it was important, but not emergency levels of importance.

But nobody seemed to be home except for a very loud dog.

I decided to wander around the property, searching for signs of life. All the lights in the house were on, but nobody was home. Odd… People here usually didn't just leave their lights on while they were away. At first, I explored the house itself. Upon seeing nothing of note, I then went out into the nearby woods.

While I was busy being nosy, I accidentally tripped over something. At first, I thought it was just a branch or something similarly long and narrow.  After I picked myself back up, I got a better look at what I tripped over. It was a large sign, definitely much longer and wider than the branch I thought it was. The sign looked like it was hastily thrown together using several smaller planks of wood, and it had quite possibly the sloppiest writing I had ever seen. Several large nails dotted the top of the sign, indicating to me that the sign was supposed to be hanging from something. I was barely able to make out what the sign said:

Magical Do-Gooders Beware!

The First Coven Has Been Reborn

Enemies of the Queen Will Be Silenced 

“Sakamoto! Come check this out!” I shouted, hoping he would hear me. He ran over to me as fast as he could. I didn't even have to show him the sign. He instantly stopped in his tracks as soon as he saw what it said.

“Tanaka… We need to show this to Mr. Kaneko…” Sakamoto said with a chill in his voice. Come to think of it, the wind had started to pick up suddenly.

Whoever made this sign meant business.