Entertaining a Small Thought

2nd Arc Part 8: Power of Faith, Words, and Lies

When I woke up, I was back in my room on my bed. I was confused, dazed, and sore. I slowly got up from my bed and placed my hand on my forehead.

How did I get here? The last thing I remember is being tossed around like a rag doll by Tenko. Did she bring me back here after I blacked out?

Urg...my head...

I slowly got out of bed and took out my Monopad to check the time. It's a little after 10 p.m. now. I must have slept through the nighttime announcement. Man, it's funny how I'm getting all this rest now after having none for a few days.

I sighed as I left my room. I need to speak to Rantaro and discuss what we learned, though for me I didn't get much.

When I left my room though, I saw something a little strange. Kaito, Shuichi, Kaede, and Maki were leaving the dorms and going somewhere. It looked more like Kaito was dragging the other three somewhere, actually. Still, out of everyone, that's a strange group. And Maki's with them, despite Kaito knowing her real talent. What is he thinking? I thought about it for a bit before ultimately deciding it was more important to check out what they were doing before I talked to Rantaro.

Following them from a distance and as stealthily as I could, I watched Kaito lead the group to an open area in the courtyard. I hid behind a corner of the dormitory building and watched as Kaito began saying something to the others. Then, strangely enough, all four of them got down and started doing push-ups.

Now I'm even more confused. Why are they just doing push-ups in the courtyard? Kaito seems to be pushing the others on, but I don't know why. After watching them do push-ups for a bit longer, each of them having varying levels of success, I decided that they weren't going to do anything I needed to worry about and went back into the dormitory building. I found myself scratching my head as I headed over to Rantaro's room.

I don't know what Kaito is planning, but it's probably fine. He's a good guy.

Once at Rantaro's door, I rang the bell and waited. The door soon opened, revealing the lime-colored owner who was inside.

"Rin. You're awake. Good. I was starting to get worried."

"Sorry about that. You know how it is with Tenko." I jokingly said.

"I figured as much after seeing Tenko carrying you back to the dorms," Rantaro replied with a chuckle.

"Either way, you owe me. I got thrown I don't know how many times, and I totally blame you for that." I groaned. "So, mind if I come in? We should talk about how everything went."

"Yes, I agree." Rantaro nodded as he led me inside and closed the door. "So what did you learn about Shuichi and Tenko?"

"Tenko isn't letting the motive affect her at all really. She's placing her focus on preventing murders that might happen in front of her, and when I asked she said she agreed with what everyone suggested this morning. As for Shuichi, he seemed really worried and unsure of what to do, but after talking to me, he seemed to know what he thinks he should do."

"And what's that?"

"He told me that he was going to try to find specifically which of us got their own video."

"Really? He can't possibly think he can actually do that, can he?"

"I don't know. He seemed really confident about it, and he said that he already had a head start."

Rantaro pondered about that before sighing.

"He might say that, but I have no idea what this head start could be. It seems almost impossible to figure out who has which videos without taking the video itself and watching it."