The late morning sunlight filtered through the blinds, casting striped shadows across Ms. Mishema’s desk in her office as she read a book on ‘Psychology and PTSD’. The office was quiet with the sound of ticking clocks until there was a knock on her door.
“Fǔdǎo Lǎoshī? Can I come in?” a small, hesitant voice asked.
“Come in,” she replied without looking up from her book.
The door opened, and Bae walked in. Ms. Mishema slowly looked up and blinked at the young but short girl with round cheeks and anxious eyes, clutching a vanilla file folder so tightly her knuckles had turned white. Setting her book near the half-empty cold cup of tea, she straightened up her posture and gestured for her to sit down.
“What can I do for you, Bae Tatsumania?” she asked in a calm voice.
Bae nervously twiddled her fingers and took a deep breath. “Ma’am, I want to ask for permission to dig up a dead body on the school’s premises.”
The request surprised Ms. Mishema, but her expression remained impassive. Years of counseling troubled students had perfected her poker face, but only the slightest tightening around her eyes revealed her shock. “Does this action have any regards the case?”
Bae nodded, already knowing what the answer would be.
“I am sorry, but I can’t help you with that.” Ms. Mishema's tone was gentle but firm.
‘I knew it,’ Bae thought with a sigh, but she politely placed the yellow file on the table and watched the older woman open it. “I did my research on the girl. She is a 16-year-old female student named Kotori Takamine, last seen on the school’s premises on the roof in February 1990. She has a loving family, friends, and a younger brother, so her death isn’t suspected to be a suicide…”
“I disagree with that logic,” Ms. Mishema said, her hands tracing the Takamine family picture. "Many people can project a perfect façade while hiding their pains and their anguish. The brightest smiles often mask the deepest wounds."
“But that doesn’t warrant her disappearance because her ghost is still haunting this school.” Bae politely argued. "We are dealing with a restless spirit who isn't looking for justice, she is looking for peace. I believe that her body is still buried in the school grounds, but we don't know where. That's why I am asking for permission from the school to search for it."
Ms. Mishema peeked at her from the file. “We?”
“Me and…” Bae hesitated; her shoulders tensed visibly before she sighed. “Emma and I.”
“I see.” Ms. Mishema slowly closed the file containing the information on the late girl and laced her fingers together.
“I understand what you are trying to do, and I am proud to see you are using this to achieve your goals of being an investigative journalist, but I don’t have the authority to give you permission to do that.” She leaned forward. “What you've compiled is good, but it's not enough to convince the authorities to get permission to dig through the school’s grounds for the body. Secondly, you and I aren’t registered authority figures, so we can’t take matters into our own hands. Lastly, if we try to take matters into our own hands, you might get expelled for destroying school property, and I don’t want that to happen to you.”
Bae’s eyes were filled with disappointment when she heard that, and she focused her gaze down at her hands, balling them into a fist on her lap. Another round of silence took over the room until Ms. Mishema asked a question.
“If she was indeed buried in the school, do you know the specific location?”
Bae shook her head.
“Did she tell you anything?”
“Who? Emma?”
“No, the late girl.” Ms. Mishema's expression was unreadable, but her tone had shifted—more curious than dismissive now. “Did she tell you anything?”
Bae shook her head again. “She only communicates through pictures, and when I flip through them, all she keeps saying is ‘Help Me.’”
“And you want to help the girl rest in peace, am I right?”
Bae nodded her head furiously and looked at Ms. Mishema with a small glint of hope in her eyes, but it faded when the 40-year-old woman sighed deeply and handed her the file.
“I am sorry, Tatsumania. What you are asking of me is past my authority, but don’t give up, okay?”
With that, Bae stood up and bowed deeply while performing a ‘Bao Quan’- her right fist pressed against her left palm in a traditional Chinese salute of respect before leaving the office. The school corridors were empty, so her footsteps echoed as she slowly up the stairs and back to the club room he heads hanging low. There, Bae placed the file in one of the drawers and looked around the dimly lit room. The room was quiet, but she could feel the cries of the ghost begging to be released, and it intensified when she stared at the picture of the smiling family pinned on the detective board.
With stiff movements, she pushed the table closer to the detective board, unpinned the family picture, and placed the delicate cherry blossoms she'd collected that morning around it. From her backpack, she withdrew sandalwood incense sticks and small white candles, arranging them in a semicircle. The match flared briefly as she lit each one, the sharp smell of sulfur giving way to sweet sandalwood.
Bae put her hands together, fingers interlaced tightly as if holding onto hope itself, and whispered a prayer. Her eyes, when she looked up at the smiling face of Kotori, were shimmering with tears that reflected the candlelight.
"I am sorry," she whispered into the dark room, her voice barely disturbing the tendrils of incense smoke. "I am sorry."
“I am sorry,” she whispered into the dark room. “I am sorry.”
Suddenly a vocaloid cheerful ringing tone of her phone disturbed the peace and quickly searched her until she found it. She quickly looked at the caller ID and realized it was Emma who was calling her and tapped on the answer button.
“Hello?”
“I saw you come out of Ms. Mishema’s office.” Emma’s static voice echoed in her ears. “What did she tell you?”
Bae sniffed and rubbed her nose with the sleeve of her shirt. “No. She told me it's beyond her power.”
“I guessed as much.” Standing near the doorway leading to the nurses' office, Emma was keeping a watchful eye on the male nurse who was busy searching for something on his desk. “There is so little she can do as the Guidance Counselor of this school.”
"At least she listened to me," Bae replied, her voice heavy with disappointment.
Emma glanced at the time on her watch and peered into the nurse's room once more. “Tell her to call the police and Kiyoto’s brother when you hear an explosion. Make sure you have the file of the information you compiled on the case in hand.”
“What? Emma, what are you…” Bae started, but Emma ended the call and looked at her watch one more time. Immediately, when the bell for lunch rang, she walked off to the storage room and grabbed a set of bow and arrows she had hidden.
‘Knowing Bae very well, it would take her a few minutes to register what's happening, then she'll run straight to the Guidance Counselor's office,’ She thought and when she looked outside the room, she could see Bae rushing towards the office and franticly knocked on the door before rushing in. With her safe in the office, Emma ran back to the empty nurses' room and grabbed two huge oxygen tanks.
‘The Nurse isn’t allowed to lock the room in case of emergencies.’ She thought, rushing out of the front entrance, then turned to her left and ran past the east fountain. ‘But what kind of school allows oxygen tanks into the room?’
She came to a stop a few feet under the window of the sewing room, and she firmly wedged the oxygen tank into the tiled ground and retraced her steps toward the school's garden.
Meanwhile, a golden-haired girl with blond highlights and golden eyes was addressing the club members in the school's greenhouse. The air was humid and heavy with the scent of soil as she explained the difference between annual and perennial seeds. The peaceful scene was shattered when Emma burst through the door, startling everyone.
“Where is it?” she demanded, her eyes scanning the area.
The blond girl’s eyes widened in fear as she looked at the other club members.. “What are you talking abou…”
"The pesticide you use to kill insects in your garden," Emma interrupted. “The one with the flammable compound in it. Where is it?”
Silence filled the green house until a green-haired boy with strikingly blue eyes slowly pointed at a locked cupboard near the brick wall. Emma rushed over and broke the lock despite protests from the club leader and took out the pesticide. Then she rushed out, grabbing a rag and a shovel on her way, while the girl with blond highlights rushed after her.
By the time Emma arrived at her destination, some students and staff who had witnessed her strange behavior had gathered around the oxygen tank wedged into the ground. No one noticed as Emma soaked the rag in pesticide, wrapped it around an arrow, and set it on fire with a lighter from her pocket.
“What are you doing?” the golden girl screamed in horror, loud enough to get everyone’s attention. Emma drew her bowstring and took careful aim at the oxygen tanks as everyone fled in panic. The fire from the arrow illuminated her face as she adjusted her aim and released.
The explosion shook the entire school building, shattering nearby windows and sending debris flying in all directions. The sound reverberated across the campus, followed by screams and the distant wail of alarms. When the dust and rubble cleared, Emma, disheveled but focused, peered breathlessly into the crater that had formed, noticed something dark digging out of the dirt, grabbed the shovel, and started digging while the rest of the students watched and recorded her with their phones.
“What is she doing?”
“Is she insane?”
“Of course she is insane.”
“Look at what she did!”
“Wait, what is that?”
“It looks like a black tarp.”
“It is a black tarp.”
“Is that…a body?”
“OMG! It is a body!”
The whispering slowly grew into sounds of shock and horror as the skeletal remains of the skeletal remains of a young girl still clothed in a school uniform from the 1990s, the fabric deteriorated but recognizable. The bones were partially wrapped in a black tarp, confirming what had only been speculation until now; Kotori Takamine had indeed been murdered and buried on school grounds.
An hour later, sirens wailing and emergency lights flashing across the school grounds filled the school, but by the time the police arrived, the remains had been fully excavated. As Bae helped Emma out of the hole, the rest of the authorities quickly descended into the hole to take out the remains.
"How did you know she was buried here?" Bae asked, her voice barely above a whisper as she stared at the skeletal remains being photographed by forensic technicians.
Emma wiped the sweat from her brow and showed her the picture of the blueprints, tampered with dots and lines creating an arrow. “The rooms where the ghost appeared in the window was a clue.” She pointed at the spot.
Bae stared at the phone and then looked up at the roof of the building, the pieces of the puzzle slowly clicking together. “This means someone pushed her from the roof, and when she fell, he buried her here!”
Suddenly the two girls were startled by a loud hoarse scream and looked behind them to see a middle-aged man with grief etched into the lines of his face—collapse in sobbing against Ms. Mishema's supportive arms as the stretcher passed by them while the police officers were reviewing Bae's carefully compiled file, their expressions grim as they cordoned off the area.
“I also furthered my research on the school’s activities during that time. They were in the middle of landscaping besides the school.” Emma added. “This means this side of the school was nothing but dirt.”
Bae pursed her lips and took a deep breath. “The person picked the easiest place to bury her.” Then her eyes lit up, and she glanced up at Emma. “Wait a minute, if they were in the middle of landscaping, why didn’t the workers find the body?”
Emma couldn’t give an answer to that. Then, a police officer wearing a dark blue uniform approached them with a stern look on his face.
“Both of you need to come with us.” He ordered. “We need statements from both of you.”
Four days later…
The school was still abuzz with the events four days ago, and every student was in the school’s auditorium listening to the Headmaster talking about the new rules implemented in the school. As usual, members of the student council stood on stage behind the Headmaster, addressing the students from the podium.
“This again?” Ayumi moaned.
“Shh,” Itsuki warned.
Kiyoto sighed. “I feel your pain.”
“It's all those girls’ fault!” Katsumi growled. “I should have reported them to the Headmaster immediately when I caught them speaking in Chinese!”
“You mean…” Itsuki corrected.
“Shut up, Itsuki!” she snapped.
Ruri sighed deeply. “The school’s occasion is two dates away! What are we going to do now?”
“We postpone it,” Ayumi replied.
“Not with this hanging on our heads,” Kiyoto added with a sigh. “I guess we need to wait until next year.”
Itsuki quickly shushed them as the Headmaster finished his speech. A few minutes later, the students were dismissed, and Katsumi was patrolling the halls again with a stern expression on her face. She felt everyone’s eyes on her and reveled in the sense of authority she displayed, but she was disappointed that she couldn’t use it on everyone. Remembering Emma’s words made her shiver, but she grinned in satisfaction that she wouldn’t see either of those girls again after the body was revealed.
“Hello!” the bright cherry voice silenced the corridor. Katsumi stopped in her tracks and turned around to see the Bae Tatsumania standing before her.
“What are you doing here?” she bellowed, pointing at her. “I thought you were going to be expelled for what you did!”
Bae stared at her in confusion. “I was given a pardon by the state.”
“The state?” Katsumi’s eyes glowed in horror and rage. “Who the hell would give you that? This has to be a joke!”
“What’s happening?” Magic asked, walking into the scene with Itsuki beside him.
“This…this…this…” All Katsumi could do was stammer and point at Bae, who continued to stare at her in confusion.
Unfortunately for her, Itsuki and Magic weren’t fazed by Bae’s sudden appearance. While Itsuki was pleased to see her, Magic was irritated by Katsumi’s incompetence.
“You weren’t listening to what the Headmaster was saying, were you?” he asked Katsumi. “Bae has been pardoned by the State. This means she still has the right to attend school.”
She turned to look at him in shock. “What?”
“You see, Mr. Takamine is one of the highest paid attorneys in the country, and since Bae and Emma found the body of his missing sister, he advocated for them to be pardoned for their crimes and offered to pay for damages to the school,” Itsuki explained and shrugged. “Besides, apart from them destroying the school properties and not reporting things to the proper authorities, they haven’t committed any crimes. All's well that ends well, I guess.”
Katsumi was dumbfounded as her pointing finger slowly dropped to her side. She coughed, put her hands behind her back, and composed herself.
“I am sorry.” Her tone was composed and formal. “I wasn’t paying attention to the Headmaster’s speech this morning.”
“This shows that none of you were listening to what the Headmaster was saying address this morning, and I noticed most of you were whispering to each other.” Magic turned his back on her and looked back with narrowed eyes. “Everyone gave me their excuses except you. So, let's hear yours, shall we?”
The humiliation in Katsumi’s eyes was evident, but it quickly turned to hatred when she looked back at Bae, whose polite grin faded to concern when she saw it. As Katsumi walked away in shame, Bae adjusted the strap on her backpack and walked to her homeroom.
Later in the club room, Bae flicked her wrist, and an empty scroll materialized in her hand. Sitting on the floor, she spread the scroll on the floor, picked up the brush, dabbed it in ink, and started to write a letter.
“Dear Shifu37Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz4SGuVxBoW
May this letter find you well, in good health and enduring peace. I bow my head from afar and offer you my sincerest respects, as your student who still walks the path you set me on, though with uncertain feet.
A lot of things have changed after my mother divorced her second husband. I am in a new school, but making friends is hard, and this school is filled with so many secrets. Fortunately, I am still on my way to achieving my dream of becoming an ‘Investigative Journalist’ like my role model, HiroshiTakeda.
So far, I have solved the murders of two students in my school and a cold case involving the ghost of a girl named Kotori Takamine, but I didn’t do it alone. There is this girl in my school named Emma Cross-wood who helped me, but she is cold and always alone. I suspect that she is secretly a kitsune, a Japanese Fox Spirit, but she has a dark aura surrounding her because of her trauma, and I am afraid that she might lose her humanity.
I am confused about what to do. You taught us not to associate ourselves with elements of darkness, but I don’t want her to turn into a demon. My path might lead me to create enemies, both mortal and immortal, because of the circumstances surrounding her.
I hope my brothers are doing well. Please tell Doctor Lui and Ms. Bo that I’m doing well and I haven’t forgotten my training, but I am still bad at cooking.
Your Little Panda; Bae Tatsumania.’
She closed the scroll and spun it into the air until it disappeared. The day slowly turned to night, and Bae was drinking her tea in her apartment, looking out the window while recalling her encounter with the police detective, Mr. Hasegawa, and the disciplinary hearing from the school. Mr. Hasegawa was calm and professional, asked questions, listened to the clues, and praised her thorough work in documenting the case, but he politely refused to investigate the matter further, which disappointed her. The disciplinary hearing was tensed with Ms. Mishema fighting hard for her and Emma and Itsuki and Ruri aiding her defense.
‘In the end, we were only punished with cleaning duty for three weeks.’ Bae sighed deeply and sipped her tea. ‘At least we were not expelled and Ms. Mishema wasn’t fired but…’
Then the room turned cold, and a familiar ghostly figure materialized before her behind the window. Bae squinted her eyes for a while and took a step back when she realized who it was.
“Kotori?” she called out.
The ghostly apparition smiled, and her hand held a red Polaroid camera that looked eerily similar to the one Bae used to communicate with her. She raised it to her face, and a flash of light temporarily blinded Bae. When she opened her eyes, she saw a picture on the floor. She picked it up and saw herself with a faint silhouette of Kotori and her late family smiling behind her. On the back were the words, ‘Thank You’.
Bae pressed the photo to her chest and whispered. “It was my pleasure.”
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