A New Day, Part 2

Kuro and Alice were sitting outside a trendy cafe, the kind of place where Kuro really stuck out. Alice had dragged him there, so he wasn’t too thrilled about it.

“Do you want anything?” Alice asked, looking over her own menu.

“No thanks,” he answered bluntly.

“Are you sure? I’ll pay for you.”

“I’m fine.”

An awkward silence filled the air between them…

“So…” Alice was the first one to break it. “Anything you do for fun?”

Kuro didn’t even turn his head towards her. “Not really…”

“Oh, come on. There has to be something.”

“Nope.”

“Well, how have your studies been going then?”

“Fine.”

“That’s a lie. I’ve seen your file, you know.”

“Oh, have you? Then why did you even ask me?”

“Maybe I just wanted to hear your thoughts.”

Kuro rolled his eyes. “Then I have no thoughts about that.”

“All right then…” Alice didn’t want to push him, but she did at least want a reaction, and some answers. “Well… What’s this about you putting a student in the hospital?”

“I broke his arm after he pulled his gun on me. He’s lucky that’s all I did.”

“And what about possibly having ‘ties to criminal organizations’?”

“That’s a long story…”

“Wait, so you really do!?”

“No, it’s— Nevermind…” Kuro shook his head. “Can’t you just leave me alone? I’m sure you’ve got more important things to do.”

“Well, nothing is more important than a student.” Alice smiled confidently. “But maybe I’ll leave you alone for a bit…” A devious smirk covered her face. “If you tell me more about the election…”

Kuro clicked his tongue, but after a few seconds of silence, he responded, “You use Grape?”

“Of course, who doesn’t?”

Kuro pulled out his phone and opened the social media app. “On election day, plenty of people were making posts when they went to vote. ‘#ColumbiaVote’ and ‘ColElec’ were pretty popular.” He brought up a selfie of some girl wearing a Vote Roberta button. “Might be worth looking through if you want to learn more.”

***

The most obvious thing Alice found when going through the election posts was that most students seemed to be supporting Roberta. They all were wearing Roberta buttons, posting Roberta memes. Things became especially jarring when looking at her opponent. Posts deriding Felicia were not only common but more frequent than genuine support for her. Of course, Roberta only lost by a hair, so she wasn’t unpopular, but there certainly seemed to be a dissonance.

However, this was all just social media posts, they weren’t proof of anything. To determine if there really was foul play like how Kuro implied, Alice would have to dig deeper. The only problem was she didn’t know where to even start.

This question kept gnawing at her, even during her lessons with Kuro at the library.

“Hey!”

“Huh!?” Alice was snapped out of her thoughts. “What is it?”

“I’m done.” Kuro handed her the worksheet she gave him.

“Yes, thank you.” Alice started looking over the worksheet only to be shocked by the results. “Aren’t you flunking math? How’d you get all this right?”

Kuro leaned on his hand and looked out the window. “It’s not like it’s hard or anything.”

With a sigh, Alice finished marking the assignment. “Maybe I should be glad, but… If you’re so smart then why are your grades so poor?”

Kuro didn’t reply.

“I mean, you could probably make the honor roll, to be perfectly honest.”

“And what good would that do?”

“What do you mean? It’d do lots of good!”

“If you say so…” Kuro promptly stood up, preparing to leave, but he winced as he saw Roberta and her protesting approaching. “Damn it!”

Alice leaned over to get a better look at them. They had been traveling across campus recently to spread their message further.

“Can’t that girl just give it up…” Kuro rubbed his temple in frustration.

But as Alice laid her eyes on Roberta, she realized something. If there really was foul play during the election, surely she would know, right?

“Kuro!” Alice yelled.

“Wh-what!?” Even Kuro jumped a bit at the sudden outburst.

“How can I meet with Roberta?”

“Huh? She’s just a normal student, you could probably just go up and talk to her…” Then Kuro realized what she really meant. “Hold on, you better not be planning on asking her about the election!”

Alice gave a smirk which said everything before she ran off.

“Are you serious!?”

Kuro’s primary goal in life was to not get involved in unnecessary trouble, and if Alice kept going down this road, he’d be right next to the biggest disaster in recent Columbian history. So with an exasperated sigh, all he could do was go after her.

***

Fighting through the protestors, Alice managed to make her way up to Roberta. Immediately, she introduced herself. “My name is Alice Weiss. I’m from the Interscholastic Investigation Committee. Can I ask you a few questions?”

“Ah, I’ve heard of you. You’re here to stop this tyranny, right?” Roberta treated her like a comrade rather than as a teacher.

“Yes, first off, can you tell me about the election?”

Roberta’s overly familiar demeanor immediately changed. “What about the election?” Her coldness cut through the cries of the protest.

“Did you notice anything suspicious?”

Roberta looked around, as if they were being watched. Looking back to Alice, she swallowed hard and replied, “Of course not. There was no election more secure.” Silently and covertly, Roberta shoved a card into Alice’s hand. “It’s been a pleasure meeting you, but I’m awfully busy.” Expertly Roberta weaved through the protest, getting right to the front to give another speech.

Soon, the rest of the protest moved beyond Alice, and she was left alone in the street. Holding up that card, all that was on it was a phone number.

“There you are…” Kuro had finally managed to catch up to her. “Can you at least wait until you’re done with me until you pull stunts like that?”

“Okay.” Alice smiled and pulled out her phone.

“What are you doing?” Kuro’s eyes narrowed.

“Oh, nothing…” Alice put her phone away, the number now saved to it.

Kuro buried his face in his hand.

It was ironic how Alice was more trouble for him than he was for Alice.

***

That night, Alice called that phone number. The only thing the person who answered said was “9:00 PM, Queen of Columbia.”

After asking around, the Queen of Columbia turned out to be a club.

Going to a club on a rougher side of town because a mysterious phone number told you to was what some would call stupid. But for better or worse, Alice didn’t mind being a little stupid.

Unfortunately, when Alice arrived, she was turned away at the entrance. The club turned out to be quite exclusive. With nowhere else to go, she was now loitering outside.

“This sucks…” She complained to herself. “I guess it was all just a scam or something…”

“Should you really be so easily disheartened?”

Alice gasped, she recognized that voice. Looking up, she saw Roberta, dressed in all black with a hood covering most of her face.

“Now you wanted to know if anything about the election was suspicious, right?”

Roberta led Alice down a back alley.

“Um, isn’t this a bit shady?” Alice asked, getting slightly nervous.

Roberta chuckled. “You’re asking that now?”

Not long after, Roberta stopped, taking off her hood. “Now I’ll tell you what I know.”

Alice’s eyes widened. It was finally time for some answers.