Life Will Change

Chapter 61: The Black Mask Struck Again

Begin

~Normal POV

9/13 - Tuesday

After coming back from such a nice trip, their mood quickly shifted the second they heard the news at school today. Makoto had called an emergency meeting at the hideout, but hadn't said what the problem was. (Only saying that they'd find out at Shujin.) The school held an assembly to discuss the issue: Principal Kobayakawa had died on Sunday afternoon. The vice principal would be taking over for the time being. Immediately after the assembly was over, Akira pressed Makoto for details. Apparently, her sister had told her about it already the previous night. And said the symptoms were rather close to the other cases of mental shutdowns.

Once the team was able to meet up at LeBlanc to talk about it, and the data they had stolen, it was already evening. Ryuji and Yusuke were watching the comments on the site with their phones, keeping an eye out for anything that said they were being blamed. And Futaba was on her laptop, looking through the case files.

"Before we talk about the data, we need to discuss the incident with the principal..." Makoto started. "I know it's not a popular decision but it's still important."

"He was willing to let Kamoshida get away with what he did to Shiho. Forgive me if I'm not terribly upset about losing him." No one had ever heard Ann sound so cold.

"And he let Kamoshida get away with breaking my leg, and abusing god knows how many students. I don't know why he's dead, but I ain't fucking sorry," Ryuji added, firmly.

"We understand that," Akira said, gently. "And honestly, I agree with both of you. The guy won't be missed. But try to put aside any personal feelings for a moment. There's a more important issue at hand: why was he mentally shut down? Makoto, give us the details again, please."

Makoto nodded and promptly repeated what her sister was able to tell her. "It happened at the time when we were still on the plane coming back. They found out he took a taxi out to the police station at that hour. They couldn't stop right next to it, for some reason, so he chose to walk the rest of the way. When he reached the last crossing, he suddenly stopped while crossing the road and was hit by a truck. The driver was fine, but he swears he didn't see him until it was too late. That's all they know."

"And he didn't try to move? That's just like what happened with my mom; except she fell into the street..." Futaba said, quietly.

Akira sighed. "Ok... that's solid enough evidence for me. Kobayakawa had a mental shutdown. But the question is: why? What could be the motive for murdering an average school principal?"

Ryuji looked up from his phone. "Why is motive so important anyway? You know more about this stuff than us."

"Because motive is the key to finding the Black Mask, our murderer," Akira answered, as he paced around the room, "You have to look at what there is to gain from the person dying. That's how you find the one behind the crime. And the problem with the Black Mask is that our known victims of them are entirely unconnected. Dr. Isshiki, we have a clear motive for: they wanted her out of the way to either steal or destroy her research. As evidenced by Futaba never seeing a trace of said research on any public or private forums after her death. Ohya's friend? Well, she didn't die, but they were trying to pin the mental shutdown of the politician she was investigating as murder on her part. Cover up for another crime. That politician was involved in a slush fund; he was probably taken out to get to the money themselves. But Kobayakawa has nothing to offer from him being put down. So, why kill him? It couldn't have been over Kamoshida. He was arrested back in May, so why wait until September to go after the principal over that? No, it's gotta be something else."