"This is…"
"...Drugs."
The two of them just stared at me, their eyes wide like I'd just morphed into the Hanako ghost myself.
"But… students our age shouldn't use drugs!" Misaki stated, with the kind of obviousness that only someone truly innocent could muster. Like, no kidding, Sherlock.
Amae and I exchanged a look. It wasn't exactly a smile, more like a silent, shared understanding of Misaki's naivete.
I handed the gross little pouch – or rather, the 'evidence' – to Amae, then practically shouldered my way out of the smelly stall. Amae and Misaki were blocking the exit, so I had to kind of… nudge them aside like they were a stubborn, heavy door.
"Let's go," I said, already heading for the door.
"Hey, wait! What do we do now?" Misaki looked a little terrified, like a lost puppy who'd just realized its owner was gone.
"Isn't it obvious?" I said, maybe a little too bluntly. "Report it to the authorities. We're in no position to do anything about this ourselves." Seriously, how was she the honor student if she couldn't figure that out?
They trailed after me. Great. Now I had to walk all the way downstairs, then all the way upstairs again back to our clubroom. What a pain. Why couldn't they just build a bridge between the two buildings or something? Save me some precious energy.
...
...
Back in the clubroom, it was time for the inevitable 'what do we do next' meeting. Though, let's be real, it was pretty much already decided. We were handing this over to someone who actually got paid to deal with this stuff.
"We need to do something about it!" Misaki declared, standing up and actually looking like a leader for a hot second.
"Yeah, report it. We'll report it," I cut in, hoping to nip any heroic delusions in the bud. "We are absolutely, one hundred percent not in a position to act if this actually is something as serious as drugs."
"But—" Misaki started, but Amae, thankfully, interrupted.
"I hate to say it, Kyo, but… you're actually right this time." He managed to calm Misaki down, gesturing with his hands like some CEO at a company retreat trying to explain a merger.
After some more back-and-forth, Amae finally convinced Misaki that handing it over to the authorities was the smartest, and safest, move.
And that's exactly what they did. The two of them trooped off to the principal's office. I, naturally, stayed behind. Why waste another joule of precious energy? Besides, someone had to watch over the clubroom, right? That was my vital contribution.
Okay, fine. Maybe saying it was drugs was a bit… dramatic. Overwhelming for Misaki and Amae, for sure. But it was the only way to guarantee I wouldn't get dragged into some full-blown investigation. If they thought it was serious, they'd leave it to the pros. I couldn't have them wanting to "get to the root of it." No way.
Truthfully, it was probably unlikely it was drugs. Our school might not have the shiniest reputation, but it didn't exactly have a history of major drug busts or serious crimes. And as far as I knew, all the teachers and students seemed… well, decent enough. At least on the surface.
That wrapper could have been anything – some weird cleaning product, a funky food wrapper, whatever. I just didn't want to waste my time and energy figuring out which product. So, I guess my little "drugs" gambit was a success. A partial success, anyway.
"Damn it," I muttered to myself, slumping into my chair. "I wasted at least 283 steps worth of energy today." I didn't even bother hitting the table in frustration. That would have been an additional waste of energy.
But the real mystery still lingered: what was driving this Hanako rumor revival? A legend as old as World War II, suddenly popular again? Why? Amae had been going on about it earlier. He'd mentioned Hanako being a boy this time, but back in middle school, it was definitely the story of a girl murdered in the school toilet.
Surely the legend had evolved for a reason. Hanako changing from a girl to a boy… but why? If only I knew this 'some reason.'
Was it connected to why it was popular again? Highly possible. I was definitely missing some pieces here…
Think… think, Kyo…
Ngh, I give up. I am not wasting any more brainpower on this.
If my calculations were correct, they'd be back in about ten minutes. Time to relax. This was my hard-earned peace and quiet, after all.
Ah, speak of the devils. They were back sooner than I expected. Of course they were. Who else was going to disturb my precious, hard-earned rest? What was it this time? Misaki actually looked… happy?
"Oh, Kyo! That thing? It was just a local cleaning product!" she announced, beaming like she'd just won the lottery.
"And," Amae added, striking a pose like he was some kind of cool detective, "it contained bleach. That's what had that strong smell." He shot me a look. "Only you would actually like a smell like that."
I put on my best relieved face. "Hah, phew, that's good." They both immediately saw right through my terrible acting. I was a really bad actor.
So, we were back to square one. Still no clue why the Hanako legend was suddenly all the rage again.
"So," Amae said, clapping his hands together, "let's get back to our original goal!"
"Why is the Hanako legend regaining popularity?" he added, for dramatic effect.
Ugh. I just wanted this to be over so I could go home. Fine. I guess I'd cooperate. For now.
"Amae," I started, "earlier, you retold me the story of this Hanako."
"Yes, I did," Amae replied, looking proud of himself for remembering.
"But this time, Hanako was a boy. Do you have any idea how the Hanako legend switched from a girl to a boy?" I asked, really, really hoping this would be the last question I'd need to ask to finally close this ridiculous case.
Amae went into his usual 'browsing-the-internal-encyclopedia' mode, staring at the ceiling for a moment before answering. "I'm pretty sure it's because of that anime."
Anime? I didn't watch much anime. That would explain why I couldn't crack this on my own.
"Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun," Amae continued, "that's the name, if I recall correctly."
So, some gross-sounding anime was the culprit. Well, as long as it helped me get home, maybe it wasn't so gross after all.
Amae, of course, kept going without even being asked. "They recently released season two, and the MC was shown as a villain… blah blah blah…"
He finally stopped after blabbering on for a good minute.
I stood up, a triumphant (and slightly weary) feeling washing over me. "Case closed!" I declared. "The Hanako legend is regaining popularity because of this… uh… interestingly named anime."
I quickly grabbed my shoulder bag from the table. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going home."
Just as I was about to make my grand escape, I heard a clapping sound. Misaki was clapping for me, a genuine smile on her face. Perhaps my dramatic declaration had seemed particularly iconic to her.
Clap-clap-clap…
"Kyo, you really are smart!" she said. "I thought Amae was just kidding when he told me stories about your genius."
Smart? You've got to be kidding me. Whatever I just did wasn't 'investigation,' it was more like… childish guesswork.
"Oh, it was nothing," I replied, just for the sake of saying something.
Then, she murmured quietly to herself, so low I almost didn't catch it, "Maybe he can help me…"
I didn't quite hear it all, but I definitely caught something about 'help.' Oh no.
"Okay, Amae, you handle all the website stuff," Misaki said, suddenly sounding like a boss. "Let's head home." It was evening now, the sun was setting, and the golden light was flooding our clubroom. It actually looked kind of nice.
'Let's head home.' Those words were like music to my ears. Thank you, Misaki.
Still, at least 300 steps worth of precious energy wasted today. Sigh.