The Muse

Fourth Melody

"Did you guys find anything yet?" Ryuya asked. Ringo, Tomochika, and him were furiously flipping through stacks of information relating to Haruka. It's been 3 days since her disappearance and there was not a single lead as to where she could be. 

"No. We're still looking", Ringo replied. Tomochika was scanning the documents, not even bothering to reply.

"I see." Ryuya nodded. "But still...don't you guys think it's a bit odd?" 

Tomochika looked up. 

"What do you mean by that Ryuya?" Ringo asked questioningly with a frown.

"I mean...everything that we've been scrolling through only has Haruka's previous achievements and rewards. There's not a single thing current information on her." Despite how much he wanted to doubt how off this situation was, he couldn't shake off the feeling that anything related to Haruka was deliberately erased.

"Now that I think of it. The latest relative information was only about a year ago. Nothing was recorded from a few days ago", Ringo answered. 

"Then what now?!" Tomochika yelled. "Haruka is out there somewhere and who knows where?! She's always the type of girl to think about others and no doubt she's bound to get kidnapped?!" 

"Tomochika, calm down", Ringo said as he went over to Tomochika to comfort her as she began breaking down into sobs. 

"Haruka..." Tomochika said through sobs. Tears were still streaming down her face when she looked up from the palms of her hand. "It's their fault. If they didn't treat Haruka that way, this never would've happened. I'll kill them."

"Tomochika! Snap out of it!" Ryuya yelled at her looking into her eyes. Her eyes widened immediately at the sudden outlash of Ryuya.

"If Haruka was here, would she want you, her best friend to do that for her?!"

Tomochika's eyes widened and looked back down towards the ground. Ryuya let out a sigh.

"For now, all we can do is continue looking." 

Meanwhile, Ringo was looking around the room at all the documents around him. Peaking out from under a stack of papers was a newspaper that had caught his eye. He reached out for it and looked at the small news located at the bottom of the paper. Suddenly, his eyes widened in shock. 

"Hey guys! Come and have a look at this!" Ringo motioned them over. 

Tomochika grabbed the paper out of his hand and scanned it. Her face reflected the same expression Ringo had a minute ago. She immediately got up and walked out the door, grabbing her coat and purse along. Ringo followed in a similar fashion. As Ryuya quickly scanned the paper, he also followed suit. 

At the hospital~

"Rei, you know you don't have to constantly visit me. Besides, I'm going to be discharged tomorrow", Haruka said while eating her hospital lunch. Rei sat beside her also eating his bento that he bought at a nearby convenience store. 

"I visit you because I want to", Rei said as he gulfed down some rice. 

"Thank you." Haruka smiled at him. He felt his heart flutter a little as he went back to eating his food.

Then all of a sudden, the phone nearby began to ring. 

"I'll go get it", Rei said as he got up. He picked up the phone and a voice came through. It was Dr. Ootori.

"Is there something the matter, Dr. Ootori?" he asked.

"Y-yes...it seems that some people from Shining Agency are requesting to know where Haruka Nanami is located."