After Dark, June 16th--???

[itwasfeyt]

[It had been a long day. Maya had been saddled with these strange memories, right after the ritual. She would have ignored them as a silly vision, had things not started to play out in the same way. Souji was missing, and she knew something was up now. Unfortunately, Hiroshi, her prime suspect in the situation, seemed to know even less then she did. And, when they had gone off to investigate Souji's house once again, they found nothing.

Frankly, she was stuck, and time was running out.

In times like this, her thoughts strayed to her sister, Mia and what she might have to say in a moment like this. One of her lessons were, "if you were going to investigate, the best place to start would be the scene of the crime". There were no proper murder scenes, at least to Maya's knowledge, but the spot in the woods where they did the ritual seemed like a good place to start.

...After getting a burger, of course. You couldn't investigate properly on an empty stomach. but now they were getting down to business, and Maya was leading Hiroshi into the outer parts of the woods.]

So... do you think we'll find anything out here?

Comments

[all_onis_are_true]

[He can't believe how much absolute nothing this whole situation has turned up. Maya's been following him the whole time, and even made him pay for burgers on top of that. Is he really entitled to pay for her just because she hallucinated he killed people?]

Besides ashes from the fire? I can hardly imagine. I have been pondering something, though.

[itwasfeyt]

[Maya, on the other hand, was determined to find some sort of evidence, and wasn't about to give up just yet.

She munched on a burger thoughtfully, finishing it off in a few chomps.]

Right... but, other then that. Oh, what is it?

[all_onis_are_true]

You seem absolutely convinced that I am going to start killing a bunch of people, yes?

[itwasfeyt]

Yeah... I mean, I have these weird memories of you doing horrible things, but...

[She shrugged aimlessly.]

[all_onis_are_true]

This is clearly not an admission of guilt, but are you certain isolating yourself with someone you believe to be insane in unwatched areas was the best approach you could have taken with this?

[itwasfeyt]

....Huh. I didn't think about that.

[Maya...]

I don't think it matters, though. Everyone will know you did something if I turn up dead and you're missing. Right?

[all_onis_are_true]

Should you not place a little more priority on your own life? You should not have to out a murderer by offering yourself as the evidence you know -- eh?

[His foot just kicked something odd.]

text; to Haruhi

[itwasfeyt]

[it's an odd part of the day to be receiving a text, isn't it? Maya didn't care, she had to get her friends involved, and Haruhi was the lucky first.]

Haruhi!! Are you awake?!

[kouyouensei]

[After Maria went home Haruhi found herself idly shopping - tea, she'd need something caffeinated if she would have more homework to do after going back. Because she's put off the ride home as long as possible - her parents let her ride alone at night. It's fine. She doesn't want to backtrack if - Seta, Yamane, Maya, all of them have been too strange and could need her help catching up.

She hammers off an easy line immediately, gets to her feet, then follows up.]

Yeah!!!

Sup Maya-chan??? You send Yamane home yet??? Are you guys done w/ur thing

[itwasfeyt]

Oh! Er, ummm

[Oh dear, just where is she supposed to begin?]

Listen! A bunch of bad stuff has happened! You have to call the others and get over here!

[kouyouensei]

Here = ????

I'm at the station

[Bad stuff like........??? WELL MAYA CAN EXPLAIN; Haruhi has calls to make]

[itwasfeyt]

the woods!!

It's Maria! She's deaD!!!

[kouyouensei]

What???

[She says it out loud to the phone in her hand but the jumbled characters stay the same. She turns a corner and decides to console later.]

Roger, OMW

call for Alice

[kouyouensei]

[A, right at the top of her contact list. Haruhi might be able to swing by her house- she's not sure it's on the way though. Best to get her picking up first.]

Alice-san, you up? Maya-chan is having big problems. We all are.

[independent_dollmaker]

[Alice blearily rolls out of bed to answer her phone.]

What kind of problem is this?

[kouyouensei]

Maria-chan is...

[Haruhi swallows the word, which Alice may have literally never heard her do.]

She's not alive anymore. We're gathering in the woods now. Can you come?

[independent_dollmaker]

[And there goes the grogginess.]

What? What's going on, what do you mean she's not alive?!

[kouyouensei]

I mean Maya-chan went off with Yamane like we saw and now she's saying Maria-chan is dead!!! We have to all meet up in the woods!

[independent_dollmaker]

...I'll be there as soon as I can.

call for Chiyoko

[kouyouensei]

[Later she might think Osaka by rights should have been first, but she remembers all the meetings Chiyoko had trouble attending on time.]

Shimamoto-san, how are you? Can you come out? There's an emergency.

[fortunatetoaster]

[ and you get a very groggy sounding chiyoko in response ]

A real emergency or a Suzumiya emergency?

[kouyouensei]

[She may have a point here but Haruhi is not in the mood]

A dead Maria-chan emergency. We're meeting in the woods.

[fortunatetoaster]

[ there's a moment of stunned silence,, quiet enough that if not for the lack of dial tone, it might seem like chiyoko's hung up all together

but then; ]

WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

What kind of sick fuckin' prank are you tryna pull, Suzumiya?!

[kouyouensei]

The prankster would be Maya-chan!!! She's the one who told me! I don't know what happened for sure. You can call Yamane too, he's with her on this one. Why would he risk it on something like this? I'm just trying to get everyone else together for them. I'm sorry, it's--messed up. We got to figure out everything.

[fortunatetoaster]

[ another silence. longer than the last one, but it's broken eventually by a soft sad noise that might be the beginnings of a sob ]

... where... ?