The Paranormal Club say their goodbyes to the Games Club and head back to their own dorms. As they approach, they see light peeking through the doorway.

“Oh, they stayed up late for us, it seems!” Yuuri says.

Saito looks at his phone. “Yuuri… it’s only like 9 o’clock.”

“Ah bet tha’ new green hairs an’ Kiricchi ar’ gabbin’ amongst themselves,” Mari says.

As they get closer to the door, Rina pipes up. “They didn’t seem like they got along that well.”-

Yuuri frowns, then moves a bit faster, reaching the door quickly and opening it to let the others in. As they enter, they find Kirika on her phone next to Kirie and Suzaka on the couch who are watching a loud action show.

Off to the side, Hotaru is at the table doing his homework. He’s the first one to notice the incoming party. “Oh… you’re all back! Hello, everyone.”

Kirika jumps up, accidentally pushing Suzaka over as she rises. “Hey, everyone’s back!”

As she races to hug Yuuri, Suzaka puts her sunglasses back on, scowling at the running Kirika before she too realizes the rest of the group is back. She instead lazily waves before returning attention to the TV.

Yuuri stumbles a bit at Kirika’s embrace. “Whoa! Katsuki must be in her room already.”

“Oh, I was ever so worried about you!” Kirika blurts into Yuuri’s bosom. “Cerys was being mean and then Cerys and Katsuki were fighting and I was scared they’d hurt each other and then Katsuki called me gay and then-” She gets cut off by a loud explosion from the TV.

Kirie jumps at the sudden noise. Suzaka lets out a little cheer and fist pump.

Kirika marches over to the couch, “Will you two turn that racket off? The senpais are back!”

Rina shoves past Kirika to see the TV herself, “Woah! I didn’t think we’d have this channel!” She hops onto the couch next to Suzaka and begins intently watching along with them.

“Nah, we can’t get them channels but I figured out how to get inta Kirika’s streaming account so we can watch this!”

“You WHAT!?” Kirika shrieks, “You’re watching that low-brow trash on my account!? You’re going to mess up my recommendations!” The elf makes a grab for the remote only for Suzaka to toss it to Rina.

“I know where this is going!” Rina grins, taking off from the couch as Kirika gives chase. The upperclassmen sigh as the two girls begin a game of keep-away with their classmate.

Yuuri looks at Hotaru and sighs, “I’m glad at least you are well behaved.” She walks over to see his well laid out notes next to a binder with ‘Studex’ written on it, “Oh, you’re still writing notes from the match?”

“Not quite,” he responds, straightening a stack of paper and sticking it into the binder, “Cerys dragged us along with her to meet the Yosakoi Club after the match.”

Saito stretches, “Alright, time for me to go to sleep then.”

“Where are you going?” Yuuri grabs his sleeve.

“I’m sorry. I just don’t want to be a part of this and knowing Cerys, we’re going to end up a part of this feud. I’m going to enjoy what free time I still have left.” He pulls Yuuri’s hand off and walks into his room, stopping right at the door, “Feel free to join me.”

Mari slams the table, “Yew gotta do it Yuuri! This is an ero-flag. E-ro!”

Yuuri turns beet red, stammering, and unable to make words.

Mari gets up and pushes her towards Saito, “Do it fer virgin gals everywhere! Tha powah of VNs compels yew!”

Yuuri finally snaps out of it and struggles against Mari. Saito laughs before closing the door behind him.

Yuudai watches Yuuri covering her face and Mari trudging back to the table in defeat. He turns to see Hotaru’s face in the same shade of red as Yuuri’s. “D-Did you guys learn anything else?” He asks, trying to steer the conversation back.

Hotaru says nothing but slides Yuudai a piece of paper. He picks it up to see that it's the profile for Eriri and written toward the bottom is ‘horror show.”

“I thought you were trying to learn something new.” He chuckles. Hotaru nods and continues to look at the table. Yuudai sighs, “You know little guy, you can talk to me. I won’t bite.”

Hotaru finally looks up to Yuudai, “I-it’s not you. It’s what’s behind you.” Yuudai turns around to see Mari staring intently at them.

“Don’t worry shortstuff, ya ain’t mah type.” She replies, continuing to ogle Yuudai.

“What’s wrong? Is there something on my face?” Yuudai rubs his hands all over, trying to find anything on his face.

Mari looks into Yuudai’s eyes. “Do yew want there ta be somethin’ on yer face?”

“Like what?” Yuudai asks.

Mari gives him a knowing look and winks.

“And I think I’m going to bed,” he replies, quickly escaping to his room.

Hotaru puts his sheet on Naomi back into the binder before looking over to the game of keep away still going on, “I think I’m going to bed too…” he mumbles, grabbing the binder. He’s stopped by Kirika screaming.

“Give me that remote this instant!” Everyone in the main room focuses their attention on her, “You two are p-p-peeving me off!”

“Hey, we aim to peeve!” Rina launches the remote like a football, “Kirie catch!”

“Huh?” is all Kirie can say before the remote smacks her in the head. It clatters to the floor as the room goes silent, neither of the three girls willing to move. This goes on for a full minute before Kirika makes a motion, sending both Rina and Suzaka diving towards the floor. Their heads smack together and they both roll on the floor in pain. Kirika confidently strides over and picks the remote up.

“Now then,” she says, turning the movie off, “Touch my account again and I’ll see both of you in court!”

“You’d seriously sue us for that?” Rina groans out while clutching her head.

“It’s the only way you’ll learn!” Kirika angrily answers.

Cerys kicks open her door and stares daggers at the second years, “Why the FUCK are you being so loud!?”

Akina groans and rolls her eyes, “Oh great, you’ve woken her.”

“The fuck is your problem?” Cerys snaps back, pointing directly at her.

Hotaru sighs and puts his head in his hands, “I should’ve left when I had the chance…”

Yuuri tries to quickly change the subject before Cerys gets too upset, “Hey since you’re awake now, what did you guys learn about the Yosakoi Club?”

Cerys looks at Yuuri annoyed, “Their President can see the future, the VP can fly and thinks her sister is a walking murder mystery, and there’s two tall boys but the red-headed one seems out of place. What more do you want?”

“How about somethin’ we couldn’t tell from tha match?” Mari says sternly.

Cerys sighs, “That’s about all we learned...honest.” She leans onto the table smirking, “Did you guys learn anything?”

“Well,” Yuuri answers, “what do you mean what did we learn?”

“About this whole rivalry between them, duh!” Cerys fires back. Both Yuuri and Mari look away from her, causing Cerys to learn further over on the table, “You did learn something interesting! You’ve got to tell me!”

“This is family mattahs. It ain’t our place ta stick our noses.” Mari says, trying to shut down the excited Brit.

Cerys hops off the table and begins to pace back and forth, “This is the exact thing we need to stick our noses into! It’s attempted murder between two superpowered clubs! It doesn’t get anymore paranormal than that!”

Yuuri and Mari share a concerned look, unsure whether to agree to her plan.

Hotaru gets Yuuri and Mari’s attention with a cough. “If we don’t intervene, someone will die. I think we have to get involved.”

Cerys’ smile grows wider as Hotaru goes back to looking at the Studex.

Akina looks over at the group and says, “Aren’t you all being a little dramatic?”

Yuuri answers, “Oh… oh no… Hotaru and Cerys make good points, and there WAS a fire. It seems there’s a lot of tension between them…” she trails off.

“A fire is nothing.” Akina says, “My father woke me up every morning with a fire. It’s simply nothing to raise an alarm about.”

Kirie stands up, hand clutched to her chest. “That’s what they make fires for! Fires are very important!”

Cerys glances at Kirie. “It’s been a week, but I already know you enough to not question how hard that remote hit you in the head.”

Rina finally gets up off the floor, “I didn’t even throw it that hard! I hurt myself more running into her!” She points at Suzaka, also sitting up, “You got plates in your head or something!?”

Suzaka taps her head and laughs, “Momma always did call me Iron Head!”

“Cuz yer dense?” Mari asks.

“Nah, it’s ‘cuz I dented a street sign ridin’ my bike when I was little.” Suzaka cheerily answers, rubbing the back of her head. “It knocked me out cold but I consider that a draw!”

Hotaru groans as he furiously begins writing in the Studex.

“Don’t let the fact that two of our members are concussion magnets distract you that we have a probable murder plot going on at our school,” Cerys says matter of factly.

“If the higher-ups at the school haven’t said anything yet, then there’s nothing we should worry about.” Kirika says, puffing her chest out in pride, “The Dean is rich like me, and we have great senses of judgment.”

“And you both are just as egotistical as each other,” Rina adds, taking a seat at the table.

“Doesn’t matter,” Cerys continues, “they still tried to kill someone! As the Paranormal Club, it’s our obligation to interfere!”

“We ain’t private eyes!” Mari snaps back.

“We should privately get our eyes on this situation before someone dies.”

Akina glares at Cerys following her pun, “Why are you so concerned about her? I’ve never seen care about anyone other than yourself.”

“Fine, you caught me.” Cerys holds her hands up, “I do care about Naomi but I really just want to stick my nose in something.”

“Last time you did that, you got your nose broken. Remember?”

Cerys feels her nose before shaking her head. “Yeah but this time it’s different! I’m pretty sure Eriri’s not a demon!”

“Yew just wanna stick yer nose inta that pretty boy aren’t ya?” Mari asks, causing Cerys to blush.

“Yes! Well...no...but!”

Yuuri steps in to calm everyone down, “Despite whatever it is Cerys wants to do with Haruhiko, her and Hotaru make good points. If we don’t interfere with this, Naomi might get hurt.”

“Well, what are we going to do when we end up finding no evidence?” Kirka asks looking around the room, “It’ll be a huge waste of time plus, we’ll get in trouble!”

“But this could end up bein’ fun! And we could save a life!” Suzaka excitedly says.

Rina nods, “We’ll be the heroes!”

“If’n it works.” Mari crosses her arms over her chest.

“Being a hero’ll be a new experience for you, huh?,” Cerys says to Rina, who glares in return.

Cerys laughs. “Unlike you idiots, we’ve been the heroes.”

Akina grabs Cerys, fed up with her actions.

Yuuri sighs deeply before looking at the redhead, “Alright Cerys, we’ll tell you what we know.” Mari tugs on Yuuri’s sleeves while Cerys fist pumps in celebration and Akina drops her. Yuuri looks back at Mari and shrugs before beginning to recount what they saw in the Games Club’s secret room, the press conference with the Idol Club, and Kyo’s additions from eavesdropping on Eriri and Haruhiko.

“You were hidin’ all this from us!?” Suzaka exclaims, failing to hide her excitement, “We gotta figure out who’s behind all this!”

Hotaru sets down his pencil and cracks his fingers, “I agree with Suzaka. We need to figure out what’s going on between these groups.”

“It has everything! Intrigue...drama...fire...pretty girls! All the makings of a good detective show!” Kirika says, stroking her chin, “All it’s missing is the Hard-Boiled Detective character!” As if on command, a purple humanoid bat in a butler’s tuxedo appears kneeling before Kirika.

“Perfect timing Flopsy,” Kirika says to the servant, clapping. “Now do the thing!”

Flopsy pulls out a hat and pipe and dons them.

Kirika presents him to the others. “Detective Flopsy will take the case!”

Suzaka bolts from the table and dives behind the couch, “Aaah! Make him go away!”

Rina sits up, “If anyone’s gonna be the hard-boiled detective, it’s gonna be me! You can’t be hard-boiled if you’re some spoiled rich brat!”

“She ain’t tha detective, dick,” Mari says, waving to Flopsy. “Flopsy is.”

“You’re too defective to be a detective!” Kirika snaps, kicking off an argument between the two, much to everyone’s dismay.

Saito walks out of his room and into the kitchen, returning a second later to see the argument continuing. He lets out a high-pitched whistle, causing everything to stop and focus towards him.

“You guys are still up?,” he asks. “Shouldn’t you all be sleeping like normal people?”

“Obviously you’re not sleeping in there because you’re the furthest thing from normal.” Akina coldly replies.

Saito opens his drink and walks back to his room, “Try to be quiet when you finally come in, ok Hotaru?” The small boy nods as the door closes.

Mari slumps back in her chair and lets out a soft whine, “Aftah tonight, Ah don’t know if we’re ready for these competitions…”

“You kidding?” Rina leans back in her chair, “We’re all super strong! We’re more than ready to knock some heads!”

Mari growls at Rina, “Yew can’t even be in the same room as Kiricchi for five seconds without wanting to tear her head off!” Rina’s facade wavers.

Kirika sticks her tongue out at Rina.

Mari waps Kirika on the back of the head, “An’ yer just bein’ a spoiled child!”

“Mari’s right,” Yuuri says, clapping her hands, “We need to learn to work better as a team and it starts with you four!” She looks at the four second-year girls before noticing that Kirie has fallen asleep at the table. She shakes her head, “It’ll have to wait until tomorrow though. It is getting pretty late.” She lightly taps her fist on the table as if it were a gavel, “Let’s talk again in the morning!” Everyone nods and begins heading back to their rooms for the night.

***

It’s after midnight as Yuuri, Kirika, Suzaka, and Rina are in bed for the night. Yuuri takes the opportunity to execute her plan before she goes to bed.

“Now that I’ve got you three here...I can give you all the speech I was going to give outside!”

Rina groans as she sits up, her hair down and already trying to spread out in different directions, “You had to wait for me to get comfortable before hitting me with a sack of bricks?”

Suzaka nods in agreement, “Yeah this don’t seem like the best time to be telling us this.”

“Quiet!” Kirika hisses, “It’s important, so let her say it!”

“I’ll keep it short so we can all get to sleep quickly!” Yuuri says warmly, “The gist of it is, in order to be a strong club, we need to be able to work together and communicate with each other. This first week, you three have been bickering with one another. Some more than others.” She glances over at Rina, who looks away, “Kirie doesn’t really get into this so she gets a pass, but you three are our backbone!”

“I thought Big Guy was the backbone?” Rina asks.

“You’re the future backbone!” Yuuri quickly corrects herself, “If you three keep this up, how will you be able to stand each other when we graduate?

“Well,” Kirika says, “They’ll just have to listen to me because I have more money than them!”

“Because it’s worked out for you so far.” Rina sarcastically replies.

“You’re missing the point!” Yuuri whisper-shouts, “The point is we’re supposed to be like a family. Everyone should have everyone else’s back at any given time and I just don’t feel like you three...have that.”

“I have your back, Yuuri!” Kirika exclaims, “Maybe not Akina’s back, but I have yours!”

“You’re expectin’ an awful lot from three people who haven’t known each other for more than a week.” Suzaka says.

“In that case,” Yuuri fires back, “From now on, you three always have to be around each other!”

“Why would you hurt me so?” Kirika whines.

“You’re messing with me, right?!” Rina says.

Suzaka scratches her head, “Don’t we do that already?”

“You’re going to be doing a whole lot more of it then!” Yuuri sternly adds.

Suzaka thinks about what more they could do before settling on being handcuffed together.

She hides under her covers. “I don’t wanna be chained up together Officer Sayamura!” Suzaka yelps, her voice being dampened by the sheets.

Yuuri stares at the pile of bedsheets before nodding her head, “It’s settled, you three are going to become best friends!”

Yuuri goes to sleep amid a chorus of groans; the three underclassmen dreading whatever idea their President has to make them friends.