The school was filled with talk about Morren's arrest and the detective's ln their way to becoming well liked by the general public. Some students read the newspaper together reading about Morren's crimes and the many unfortunate people who lost their lives to him. One of which being Houjou, her body cut into unrecognizable pieces and her head decapitated. There was an image showing the cooler Morren used with the gruesome contents inside blurred out.

The police found more body parts in containers after searching Morren's home as well as the theater. Fortunately no one in the school lost someone. Most of the targets were from Tokyo where Morren stayed until he came to visit Kyoto.

Ibuki passed a group of students in a discussion wondering who the detectives were. She entered Hyde's classroom and saw a drawing of a musketeer giving a thumbs up on the chalkboard. Did they think the Blue Corps were the detectives..?

"What's the rush Ibuki? Did something come up?" Mikael asked while approaching her. Aside from the massive chatters about the agency, nothing really.

"I hope no one figures out who we are." She sighed.

"As long as we keep our mouths shut, we'll be fine. Let's go to the cafe." Hyde motioned for them to follow. He had this aura that gave off the presence of a leader despite not being well versed in leading at all. Ibuki could see through his confident act. His bravery was his stupidity… he was kinda weak minded in some areas.

For some reason they found that the cafe's sign was turned to closed. Why..?

When they entered it was a mess. Tables were flipped, chairs knocked over, many ingredients on the floor. It was as if a tornado went through the cafe. Ruudachi and Levin were talking near the corner of the room while Midare sat across from Hoka who was tied to a chair.

"Hoka!" Hyde shouted out.

He wouldn't lift a finger against Midare but this was uncalled for! What even happened?

Midare stood up "The agency was attacked while we were in Kyoto. Yamiko had her eyes slashed out by Hoka. She's in the hospital right now."

Hoka had an upset look on her face. She wasn't going to cry but there was little she could do to prove her innocence. Her eyes moved to Hyde, do something!

Hyde made a fist "Hoka would never do something like that!"

"Yeah! She's just a child." Ibuki added on.

Levin and Ruudachi joined their conversation giving some more information on the matter.

"Cran and I found Yamiko passed out in the hallway. It's strange how the cafe was attacked but the dormitory was left intact." He opened his lighter and closed it. "We should ask the students in the dormitory if they saw anything while we wait for Yamiko to recover."

"Levin's right. We have to handle this in an orderly manner." Ruudachi said.

"I didn't ask for your input!" Midare barked, "All cases and investigations are suspended until we find this traitor in my agency. From here onwards, we are just a cafe."

She sounded angry about the situation, A rare sight to see. The novice detectives were forced out of the cafe and returned to the dormitory, except Ibuki who was pulled aside for questioning in Midare's office.

She needed someone to gather inside information and who better to do that than the sister of the famed blue musketeer. Midare touched the curtain by the window. "I know you and your sister are innocent. I can tell by your sister's behavior."

What was that supposed to mean? Ibuki tilted her head slightly.

"She's an airhead. Often going off on her own to pick flowers during a mission. She’s silly and too carefree." Midare turned around to face Ibuki and got straight to the point of her request. "I want you to interrogate 3 members in the agency discreetly. Just to clear up some of my suspicions."

3 members out of the many. Ibuki couldn't guess who those 3 may be since everyone was always too busy with their own missions for the agency.

"Julius is particular… Lemon has told me he has a special woman he sends letters to in private and I'm suspicious that it may be someone acquainted with Soap."

Ibuki knew Cran and Rine worked on the newspapers but she was never told what Julius and Cherri were up to. Cherri did get distracted a lot so Julius must've used that time to attack Yamiko. This is just one of many possibilities Ibuki thought of.

"I have some doubts about Mary too. It's often said the closest one to you can be your worst enemy. Although you work together a lot, I want to be sure that she isn't the one behind this."

There was no way Mary caused this. She was with them during the case and the attack happened while they were in Kyoto. Although… Ibuki moved her eyes to the tanuki leaf bagged on the shelf. Trickery and deceit were the main tools of the opponents they faced.

"Last, I want you to question Ruudachi. That clumsy maid has one job and one job only, watch over the cafe while I'm gone. I won't forgive her if she's behind this…"

Midare allowed Ibuki to conduct her investigation freely as she needed to. She only cared for answers and results, the methods of getting there could be as unethical as Ibuki pleased. Midare laughed at the idea before shooing her away.

────── 〔✿〕──────

The next day...

Midare stopped by the road and turned to look at the train station before her. The building was small and not much of a spectacle from outside compared to other stations in Osaka. Kashiwara wasn't known for much, perhaps just an intriguing place for photographers and Japanese enthusiasts. Midare used to be the latter, but living here made her realize how much grief common citizens go through. It was grief that grew into despair especially if an individual was hated.

She tossed the thoughts and set down her canvas holder. The tripod stand was compact in size, easy to carry with the canvas and round pallet she held. It took some time to set everything up in the perfect position before she took out a pencil and started the rough sketch.

"I'm honored to have your trust, Midare." Cherri graciously bowed. "But I feel as if I'm ill equipped for this joint mission."

The fancy way of speaking made Midare frown, there was no need to be overly polite in her office. It was just them two discussing the situation. "It's not very difficult, I simply need your assistance in being somewhere I can't be."

Cherri tapped her chin looking up "But you're putting me on night shift. My appearance at Kashiwara Station will no doubt scare the traitor away." She returned to looking at Midare, "Wouldn't It make more sense to be at Takaida Station since It's farther from here? The traitor will want to escape the city without notice."

It was a good suggestion to switch their spying spots but Midare had reason to believe their hidden traitor would take Kameoka Station over Takaida. Cherri would sway her opinion by explaining further how the members of the agency would notice if one of them was gone for too long thus the traitor would choose to escape during either afternoon or night hours.

"Leaving in the morning is too much a risk for them to take." Cherri said.

Midare slowly nodded in agreement. "Alright…"

"Still, that leaves the issue of where I'm supposed to be stationed. You're hiding in plain sight but If I were to be seen in my uniform…" Cherri frowned, stopping mid sentence. Midare snapped her fingers remembering something. "I believe there's a hotel near the station. I'll rent a room for you to use there."

Cherri clasped her hands together. "That sounds wonderful!"

She sounded way too excited about this.

"Hm…" Midare stared at the tip of her pencil she held by an unfinished line. The ambiance of pedestrians and cars started to fade back in after remembering the event. She looked at the mirror at the corner of the canvas she used to eye on the people that passed by behind. Her gaze soon focused on herself and her new outfit(disguise) which was a navy blue dress with long sleeves that nearly covered her hands and a black ribbon tied around the collar. Black leggings underneath and white shoes. She had put on glasses to attempt to hide her red eyes, the only defining feature she could alter because her drill hair was too difficult to straighten out and contacts made her eyes bleed.

"..!" In the corner of her eye she saw a little girl with pink hair be kicked away by a man in a well cleaned suit. He stomped away with the words 'Damn pickpockets… Is this country full of the poor?!'

Midare wondered what a 'noble' was doing in Japan. Maybe since Reanne was around, many wanted to meet her in person. France and Japan were only allies since they shared a similar interest in magic. Regarding the pickpocket, Midare ignored it. It was too trivial of an issue to be dealt with now.

She would find nothing, likewise for Cherri's shift. Their days of waiting around at Takaida Station would be repeating…