…

Halie: “*Sniff* *Hic*

There was extra space to keep writing… but the writing at the end looked very clumsy and…

and…

*Sniff*

Well, and I don’t know! He didn’t look like the type to have muscle spasms or hand cramps and I’m not heavy enough to break his arms while pulling me up to shore, right? So I can only think of one, possibility…”

Noel: “…Somebody intervened.”

Elijah: “Yes. It could only be that, or he had a… specific circumstance going on where he was limited on time.. and control over his own body.”

Ian: “...Hum – Hum. Could he have only been injured and didn’t dare to let you see him?”

Eriona: “I asked around and found out that he’d paid a visit to security’s office. It seems he wanted to report that dangerous area...but, he was accompanied by a security man outside of the building before even going in! Isn’t that strange?! I mean, yeah, sure, he could have just found somebody outside of the building and asked them for help, but given they’re on duty, why would they leave their post? Normally this could be viewed as a simple oversight and nothing more.

...BUT! Don’t forget recent events. The constant villain uprisings outside of Herotopia, right along the borders of our nation and our protectorates, as well as the strangely bold and direct attacks on our school campus itself… With all of these events going on, security wouldn’t DARE leave their post unattended. If they did, then it would scream negligence and inability to follow protocol. A simple order along these lines was also recently given, where security must notify his or her superiors if they are about to leave for any reason. Yet, this person was ACTUALLY spotted leaving! When I tie that strange activity to the fact that she was directly abandoned by him…”

Halie: “He *Sniff* he would normally NEVER! Never… abandon *Sniff* me.

*Sniff* he would never…

…Somebody must have… someone must have done something at that time! The moment I fell… there’s no credible evidence that we’ve found, but… *Clenches paper* that time… it could only have happened at that time…!”

She desperately clings to her piece of paper as if what little life Noel managed to save depended on it. The hard truth of her reality was, that even IF something like what she assumes happened, even IF such an event took place… there really isn’t much credible evidence to support it. Such thoughts could only be labeled as ‘suspicions’ until she offers a proper supporting evidence to help her claim.

Meanwhile, Noel and Ian both found a few things wrong with Halie and Eriona’s words, and gave the girls strange gazes simultaneously.

Bailey: “Woah~ haha, how’d you do that? It’s like, synchronized dancing, but with your eyes. You looked right at us with those weirded out faces at the same time! That’s pretty strange, itself~”

Each noticed the other’s questioning stare and decided to speak in turn.

Noel spoke up first.

Noel: “About your experience… you both focused on two points that were indeed strange enough, them being the fact she was abandoned by the one who saved her, when he normally would have checked up on her injuries, taken her to a nurse et cetera, et cetera. Am I wrong?”

Bailey: “You’re not. I personally came to check on her and found him already missing. Furthermore, she claimed to have felt ‘chocked’ and ‘suffocated’ but I didn’t see such markings on her neck. And when he spoke to the security, it was about the ‘slip’ and not about the choking or anything abnormal. This doesn’t line up with his panicked expression that Halie reportedly saw.”

Halie: “I DID see it! He was extremely worried over something...*Sniff*”

Noel: “Right. You also discovered strange activity over security personnel, but I don’t think what you noticed is actually all that helpful. The guy most likely DID receive permission, which still begs the question of ‘why’ he got permission, but…”

andEriona: “Ah! Impressive! I didn’t want to mention it at first, but the reason that she ran out crying today was because we actually hit a wall. All of our points were decisively countered and turned up fruitless. Security deemed her under psychological pressure and that nothing was wrong with the floor, while the security officer of that time got a slap on the wrist sort of warning for leaving it unmanned and rushing back to get help, but nothing further since he did indeed have permission granted to return with the boy in question asking for help. We couldn’t progress the case without clues, so…”

Noel: “But more importantly, Didn’t your club find it strange that, after reporting the matter to security, instead of rushing towards the girl, they both… entered the security building? I mean, yeah, sure, leaving his post unmanned is bound to be suspicious but it could still get explained away somehow with at the bare minimum, negligent and irresponsible behavior on the security officer’s part. But what I noticed wrong after istening to you, Halie, is… even if he wanted to leave his post…why head back to gather people for support? I feel like this guy wasn’t that smart. He basically blew a giant loophole into the near perfect cover-up.

After all, if he had to call for permission, then couldn’t he also ask his superior to summon back-up while he rushes to find the unconscious student? Both the student and this security were indeed fishy.”

“Ah!”

Both Elijah and Eriona though about it and arrived at the same exact conclusion. It was indeed strange! In fact, it was practically stupid to go about running back to headquarters when a student could be dying! They should have naturally first asked for help after hearing their boss’s voice!

Ian: “Bailey...was it? Why do you look so strange? For a split second, it seemed to me, that your expression stiffened a bit. Do you need to grab a glass of water?”

His sharp gaze glared directly into her dodgy one. Eventually, she spoke up, albeit hesitantly.”

Bailey: “I have to go to the bathroom. I suddenly have diarrhea.”

Ian: “…Oh. Sorry to put you on the spot then.

...(Suspicious person number one, spotted.)”

Elijah: “That also means this ‘boss’ figure is suspicious as well. After all, in every scenario I can think of, he gave permission to Ben and this security guard to return back to headquarters even with such a shady reasoning like the one given, and outright allowed him to abandon his post over it. That’s two fishy things back to back. Abandoning your post in this tumultuous time is already suspiciously bad enough, doing so and receiving permission for it with a shaky and faulty-logic reasoning in place… it really screams suspicious.”

Halie: “That’s… that’s… that’s ...true! And it was so obvious, too! Why didn’t I...*glances over* we think of that?!”

Eriona: “That...that is strange. Such a clue, even when most people might not think about it, is still fairly obvious enough to realize after a few times of rereading the case information. Since we never stopped giving this case our attention, why hadn’t we thought about this? That’s… not normal. We ALWAYS focus on such minor details...don’t we?”

Ian: “There’s another, even MORE worrisome matter involved here.

*Points to Halie*

You. If you knew that you were going to ‘trip’ over that one spot in the pathway that leads to school… if you KNEW that you had already slipped 18 times prior to that event…

Then WHY did you keep retaking that one path?!

Hailey: “…”

Eriona: “…”

Ian: “I mean, honestly… Didn’t you ever think about going AROUND the path, since your building is located on a slope and not a fenced off hill??! Was the path THAT special to you???”

Halie: “…”

Eriona: “…”

Ian: “I came here following that path and I VERY CLEARLY saw places around the hill where you could trek upwards. It didn’t even need to REACH that point either, since you only had to dodge the spot that kept making you trip! Just freaking GO AROUND IT!”

Eriona: “Why… hehe, why didn’t we think about it before? Wait… no, no I think we HAVE...unggh. My head… it… it hurts.”

Halie: “Why didn’t I go around it before? I did! I… did, didn’t I?

…

.

.

.

My head, also hurts a little…”

Elijah: “Could this be a mental attack or something? Should I…? I should call Mr. Abrams, right? That’s right, I should call…”

Noel: “There’s no need. Their faces are improving so I can only guess the attack, or whatever it is, has begun to recede. By the time your cell phone gets in contact with our teacher, it will have entirely vanished.”

Elijah: “Oh… still, notifying somebody is more important than NOT notifying him, right? I’ll call him anyways and-”

Ian: “Before you do, I have some questions for them that I don’t think Mr. Abrams would be… quite eager or willing to let us hear. And besides, that pain they’re feeling is something I’ve seen before at my mother’s lab while she assisted an acquaintance of hers in the medical field with a strange group of patients. Since the symptoms and reactions are the same I’ll speculate that the CAUSE is the exact same too: Their memories have been tampered with.”

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