The Missing Banchou

It was the first day of the new semester after a long summer break.

The weather had started to cool down, and tree leaves were slowly changing colors from green into red or yellow. It was as if the world was announcing that summer had ended and that autumn was coming.

It was the first day I came back to school after playing around for nearly a month. Coincidentally, it was also the day I came late to school for the first time in my life.

“Damn it, why do I have to be late on my first day?! This isn’t how I want to start my new semester!” I grumbled to myself as I ran as fast as possible toward the school gate.

As I ran, I prayed whole-heartedly that the Student Council officer manning the gate today would be anyone but Yuuki. I knew that Marika would be soft enough to let my mistake today slide, while the twins would help me with no questions asked. But Yuuki…let’s just say that no amount of affection could make the diligent Student Council president overlook my mistake.

Alas, my prayer was thoroughly denied as I recognized Yuuki’s tall figure from the distance.

“Aah…do I really have to do this?” I whispered in resignation.

If he caught me, I would be forced to spend the entire morning listening to his sermon about school regulations and his jabbing remarks about me following after Sakuya’s rebellious streak.

When my thoughts unconsciously drifted toward Sakuya, my face instantly heated up. Even now, I could still remember her warm, petite hand wrapped up in mine, and how her cheeks blushed whenever our eyes met during our walk home. I quickly shook my head to clear those distracting thoughts away.

“No, no, now is not the time to be thinking about this…”

“Thinking about what?”

I nearly yelped when a familiar voice suddenly popped up behind me. I turned around and saw Hiiro grinning at me.

“No, nothing…but what are you doing here?” I asked him.

“Same as you, I suppose. Boy, I never thought that our model student, Ryuu, would ever come late to school! On the first day of the new semester, of all times!” Hiiro started poking fun at me.

“Yeah, yeah, that makes the two of us.” I sighed. “So, are you ready to listen to President’s long sermon with me?”

“Huh? Why should I?” Hiiro shot me a puzzled look. “I’m not letting him catch me, that’s for sure.”

“Huh?” I looked back at him with an equally confused face. “But he’s guarding the school gate, and…”

“Ah, I’m taking the side gate. Mitsuki’s guarding it, and I know for sure she’ll let me in.” Hiiro smirked slyly. “Do you want to come with me?”

“Yeah! I know you won’t abandon your friends, Hiiro!” I beamed at him.

“Sure, I’ll bring you along if you tell me what happened between you and Sakuya-chan last night.” Hiiro’s smile suddenly turned downright cold.

I was completely taken off-guard by his sudden interrogation.

“Uh…tha-that’s…we just…” I averted my eyes, unsure of what to say to shake Hiiro off this topic.

I couldn’t exactly tell him that Sakuya tried to avoid her pursuers last night. Or that she took me to a secluded area to tell me the whole story, where it coincidentally turned into a secret date. I did feel bad for simply sending the delinquents a single text message that Sakuya was safe and I already took her home, but there was absolutely no way I could tell them the truth.

“Did you just say ‘we’?” Hiiro narrowed his eyes, looking ready to tear me apart no matter what my answer would be.

“I…can’t tell you what happened without Sakuya-san’s permission.” I gave up and used Sakuya as my shield. “If she says it’s okay, then I’ll tell you.”

“Hmm…” Hiiro stared at me for a moment, threatening me with his sharp glare.

Nonetheless, I remained silent, since I knew Sakuya’s wrath would be scarier than Hiiro's.

“Fine…I guess I’ll help you get into school so you can ask for Sakuya-chan’s permission.” Hiiro finally yielded to me.

“Thank you, Hiiro!” I breathed a sigh of relief.

We took a detour around the school while being careful to avoid Yuuki’s sharp eyes. By taking a side road that barely anyone knew, we managed to reach the side gate safely. Just as Hiiro said, only Mitsuki stood guard there.

“Hi, Mitsuki! As your childhood friend that you’ve known since kindergarten, you’ll let me in, right?” Hiiro greeted Mitsuki casually.

Mitsuki’s gaze went from Hiiro toward me.

“It’s rare for you to be late, Ryuuji-kun.” Mitsuki ignored Hiiro and talked to me.

“Huh? You’re ignoring me?” Hiiro pointed at himself with a blank look.

“Y-Yeah…I had difficulty sleeping yesterday, so I kinda overslept…” I scratched my head awkwardly. “Can you please overlook it this time?”

“No, wait, you two…”

“Yeah, since this is your first offense, I’ll let you in.” Mitsuki generously opened the gate for us.

“Hold on, I’m the childhood friend here! Why are you treating Ryuu better than me?!” Hiiro protested as we walked past the gate.

“It’s because I have no sympathy left for you, who keeps being late to school.” Mitsuki answered coldly.

“Well, whatever, as long as you let us in…”

Hiiro’s sentence abruptly stopped when a strong hand gripped his shoulder. Next to him, I also froze when another hand grabbed my shoulder.

“Unfortunately, she’s only letting you in.” Yuuki said from behind us.

I wasn't brave enough to turn back and look at him, but I could imagine him saying that with a beautiful smile on his face.

“No one said anything about letting you off without punishment.”

In the end, we were both caught and forced to listen to Yuuki’s never-ending sermon in a kneeling position.

*****

“Oh, Ryuuji!” Shou waved at me when I plodded wearily into the classroom. “You missed the opening ceremony! Where did you go?”

“…let’s just say it’s somewhere I’d rather not be for the rest of my life.” I shuddered when I recalled Yuuki’s demon-like face.

“Shiba-kun, it's been a while. Have you finished your summer homework?” Minami came to greet me, as well as collecting the homework.

“Yeah, I have it here.” I handed it over with visible relief.

That homework contained so many bitter memories and sufferings that I’d rather be rid of it as soon as I could. Thanks to the delinquents dragging me off to play every day, I had only started working on my homework the day before the summer festival. Even worse, the delinquents had begged me to help them with their homework, so I got stuck doing another study session in the town library with them.

I swore to myself to finish my homework early when we had the next long break while Minami diligently checked whether I had submitted everything.

“Okay, you’ve got it all here. Thanks for your hard work, Shiba-kun.” Minami smiled at me.

“Yeah, thanks for your hard work too, Class Rep.” I returned her smile.

“Hey, Ryuuji-kun! How’s your summer?” Reikou popped out behind Minami and greeted me energetically.

Reikou’s originally tanned skin seemed even darker after the summer break. She looked like she had spent all summer playing around at the beach.

“It was really fun. You looked like you had some fun too.” I replied.

“Yeah, I went to Hawaii with my family this year!” Reikou beamed. “But never mind that, I heard that you went out with the delinquents every day during summer break?”

“Well, that’s…not exactly wrong.” I couldn’t refute the truth. “They took me out to the arcade, to the pool, and we even went out shopping. It was the most hectic summer break I’ve ever had.”

Shou whistled when he heard that. “So you don’t have any chance to enjoy a summer romance?”

“Of course not…!” I reflexively retorted, only to remember the secret date I had with Sakuya last night at the festival. My cheeks felt hot and I instinctively looked away to hide my embarrassment.

“Wait, what?” Shou sat up straight when he saw my suspicious reaction. “Something did happen, right?! Tell me all the details! Who is it? Is it Kagura Sakuya?!”

“No, it’s nothing! Nothing happened between Sakuya-san and I!” I quickly refuted in a fluster. It took me a few seconds to realize that I sounded really suspicious instead of convincing.

“I knew it!” Shou clapped his hand triumphantly. “How far did you two go?! Does everyone else know?!”

“Ryuuji-kun, I’m curious as well!” Reikou butted in with sparkling eyes. “By all means, tell us everything!”

Despite not saying anything, Minami inched closer and pricked her ears.

Facing my friends’ overly excited questioning, I felt my head throbbing with ache. How was I supposed to explain our vague yet complicated relationship…?

Fortunately, my homeroom teacher decided to enter the classroom right at that moment. I quickly shooed my friends away, and they begrudgingly swore to get me talking once homeroom was over.

Since today was the first day of school, we only had to attend opening ceremony—which I missed due to Yuuki’s lecture—submit our summer homework, and attend homeroom. After that, we were free to go home or do club activities.

When the teacher declared the end of homeroom, Shou instantly leapt out of his chair and ran toward me. He was clearly determined to make me spill every single detail.

“So, what happened, Ryuuji? Come on, you’re not going to keep secrets from your best friend, right?” Shou coaxed me as he put his arm around my shoulder.

“There’s nothing to tell, really.” I said calmly, having arranged my story to appease his curiosity. “We simply went to the summer festival with everyone, played around, and watched the fireworks.”

“…that’s it?” Shou eyed me suspiciously.

“That’s it.” I insisted. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, but you won’t find any heart-throbbing story that you’re looking for.”

Shou definitely didn’t buy it, but before he could question me further, I spotted Ouji from the corner of my eyes.

“Ah, Ouji-senpai is here, so I got to go.” I quickly slipped away from Shou and collected my bag.

Shou pouted, but he let me go. “Alright, but I’ll get you to tell everything next time.”

I laughed lightly. “Yeah, I’ll tell you someday.”

“If I ever got together with Sakuya-san, you’ll be the first to know.” I promised silently.

I rushed outside my classroom and beamed at Ouji. “Thanks for saving me, Senpai. Shall we go?”

“Wait a minute, Ryuu.” Hiiro popped out from behind Ouji. He had a serious expression, unlike his usual cheerful self.

“H-Hiiro?” I jumped at his appearance. “Is it about this morning? Have you asked Sakuya-san about it?” I asked timidly.

“Kagura-san isn’t in her class today.” Ouji supplied the answer instead.

“Huh? You mean…” I turned toward Hiiro, who nodded.

“I heard it from Narumi, who's in the same class. Sakuya-chan hasn’t showed up at school since this morning. So I think we should check up on her, just in case anything happened.” Hiiro said.

Since Sakuya had similarly disappeared yesterday, sending everyone into panic and causing a huge uproar, it was natural for Hiiro to be worried.

I felt my own anxiety creeping up on me as I nodded. “Let’s go to her apartment.”

“Sakuya-san, please be there.” I silently prayed.

*****

Ding-dong. Ding-dong.

All three of us waited patiently as the sound of doorbell rang inside the apartment. Despite its loud sound, there was no signs of movement inside.

“I don’t think she’s at home.” Ouji said with a scowl on his face.

“At times like these, I seriously wish Sakuya-san has a phone.” I sighed.

“What do we do now? Should we break inside, just to make sure that she’s not home?” Ouji proposed such a muscle-headed suggestion.

“No, that will make us criminals, you know?!” I hurriedly stopped him. “Why don’t we just ask the landlord to borrow his spare key?”

“Oh, if you need a spare key, then I have one.” Hiiro fished around his bag and produced a spare key.

“Great, it'll save us time—wait, why do you have one? Did Sakuya-san give it to you?” I eyed him suspiciously as Hiiro inserted the spare key to the keyhole.

“No, I took the chance to make a duplicate of her key when we visited the other day.” Hiiro casually answered without any guilt.

“That’s completely a crime, isn’t it?!” I retorted, right when Hiiro pushed the door open.

“I don’t care as long as it helps me find Sakuya-chan.” Hiiro proudly entered her apartment room, as if he owned the place.

I sighed and followed him inside. “I won’t be surprised if you get arrested one day because of your criminal tendencies.”

Ouji came in last, as he closed the door behind us. Sakuya’s apartment was eerily silent, devoid of any signs of life. We split up and checked the whole apartment, trying to find any clues of Sakuya’s whereabouts.

“Huh?” Hiiro suddenly exclaimed.

“What’s wrong?” I turned toward him, who was carefully examining the contents of Sakuya’s wardrobe. “Hey, why are you opening her wardrobe as you please?! Haven’t you heard of the word ‘privacy’ before?!”

“No, don’t you think it’s weird?” Hiiro ignored my scolding. “None of her clothes are missing, not even yesterday’s yukata, except for the red summer dress that you bought for her.”

“Really? That’s strange.” I couldn’t resist my curiosity and peeked into the wardrobe.

Just as Hiiro said, all of Sakuya’s clothes were still neatly stored inside. The fact that her black yukata was also there proved that Sakuya did come home last night.

“Could it be that she kept her dresses separate from her other clothes?” I suggested, but Hiiro shook his head.

“Sakuya-chan only has this one wardrobe—it will be too much of a hassle to have a separate wardrobe.”

His answer was so in line with Sakuya’s personality that I couldn’t refute it.

“If none of her clothes were missing except for the red dress, could it be that she just went out for a bit? And Sakuya-chan realized that she doesn’t like the dress that much, so she discarded it.” Hiiro put forward his theory.

“…aren’t you being a bit too harsh toward the dress?” I retorted.

“Nothing else is out of ordinary too.” Ouji, who had returned from checking the kitchen and bathroom, added. “Only her shoes are missing. Maybe Kagura-san simply hasn’t gone home from a prolonged errand?”

I rubbed my chin as I pondered over this mystery. From these facts, it was natural to assume that Sakuya simply stepped out from her apartment and would be back by the end of the day.

But the disappearance of her dress still bugged me. Sakuya had clearly taken a liking to the dress when I bought it for her. Why would it be the only thing missing when everything else she might need was still there? It made this situation seemed like she just ran off with clothes on her back and a piece of dress that she liked the most—

“I was ready to leave right away.”

Suddenly, Sakuya’s words from last night came across my mind. She also mentioned that…

“When I first came to this town, I wandered around looking for places to hide, if I ever needed to.”

“What if she didn’t bring anything else with her…because she didn’t need them?” I muttered, almost speaking to myself.

Both Hiiro and Ouji looked at me with confusion.

“Sakuya-san’s apartment is very plain, as if she simply rented the place just to have somewhere to sleep. That’s the impression I got on my first visit here.” I started explaining. “What if she has several similar apartments, so she doesn’t need to bring anything with her if she moves out? And since that dress was something memorable to her, it turned out to be the only thing she brought with her.”

“But, why would Kagura-san do that?” Ouji countered. “Why would she suddenly go somewhere else? The second semester has just started.”

“That’s…” Because she was chased by the Kagura Family, was something that I couldn’t say so casually.

At this point, I was almost certain that it was the reason for Sakuya’s disappearance. She had decided to leave us behind without saying even a single word, as if we meant nothing to her. The rational part in my mind told me that she did it to protect us from getting dragged further into her problems, yet my heart refused to understand.

“Did she leave us because she can’t trust us? Are we really that incompetent in her eyes? Did she think we won’t be able to protect her?” Those thoughts kept swirling in my mind, making my emotions run wild.

“Ryuu? What’s wrong? Why did you suddenly go quiet?” Hiiro’s voice snapped me back to my senses.

“Ah…it’s nothing.” I shook my head, trying to clear off those negative thoughts. “Before I answer your question, let me confirm something first.” I told them.