[SS] Through the Eyes of the Silent Dolls

It had been several hours since they had agreed on their plans for where to meet, and when. Kana, however, had forgotten to set an alarm for the meeting, and like usual, she had become distracted by something else and lost sense of time, not that she normally had a good track of it, without monitoring it regularly. Currently Kana was finishing up some plans for one of the students she tutored. They had progressed at a faster pace than expected, and she was simply working on some additional subjects to hit upon before they would "Graduate" from her tutoring, that is, unless they chose to continue further.

After finishing up writing up the last bit of the schedule, with detailed outlines for what reading and material to hit upon, she happened to glance at her clock, and realize she should have already left by now. Kana rushed over to her phone, and immediately sent a text to Kohaku, apologizing, and briefly explaining that she would be running a bit late. Still wearing her school uniform, she grabbed a jacket and threw it on, before darting towards the door, putting her shoes on, grabbing her bag, and rushing to exit her dorm as quickly as one could, which in her case, wasn't easy.


Kana finally saw the meet up a bit ahead, though she had already spent most of her energy making it this far. No longer sprinting as fast as she could, she walked over at pace that might lead one to believe she was on her last legs. She was breathing heavily, and sweating a bit. "I apologize for my tardiness. If you'll give me just a moment to catch my breath, I'll be ready." She grabbed a bottle of water from her bag, and drank a bit from it, before placing it back. She wasn't sure if they'd ask what kept her or not, but it wasn't exactly an important topic to explain to them, so unless inquired she'd simply leave it at that.

She just hoped that being late didn't somehow mess up any of their plans. As she caught her breath and began to relax a bit more, she expected that they might begin to head out anytime. Just in case that they were still waiting on her though, she gave them a nod and an okay, to suggest she could go anytime.

“It’s not like you’re an hour late. Don’t worry.” In the end, the night was still young. Even if they had lost 15 minutes, Kohaku had seen nobody enter or exit the school building. That meant that the culprit had not arrived yet or that the culprit had long since entered and had not left. At the same time, there was always the possibility that the culprit was moving through another entrance much like Kohaku was expecting Kana to show them.

Regardless of what was happening, there was no point in dwelling on the issue of tardiness.

“So, I contacted the doll crafter and she said that there’s a switch on each individual part that allows you to detach parts or open them up. Even the eyes have these. Basically, push these buttons and the latches will loosen. Though, these latches are generally hidden under the doll’s clothing.”

Kohaku paused for a second realizing that she had nothing to demonstrate with. “Though, I guess it’s probably best to use an actual sample to see if it works.” She turned her head to Kana. “So, lead the way.”

After all, it was Kana who said she had a method of breaking in.

After Kohaku arrived a short period of time passed before Kana showed up. It was obvious that the girl hadn't purposely showed up late as the shortness of her breath and sweat revealed that she had put quite a bit of effort in getting to the intersection. She was only fifteen minutes late so it wasn't like her tardiness wasn't really going to cause any trouble for the group.

"I apologize for my tardiness. If you'll give me just a moment to catch my breath, I'll be ready."

“It’s not like you’re an hour late. Don’t worry.”

"It's only a few lost minutes, so it isn't anything to stress about. Take a few minutes to catch your breath."

As he said this Nori was looking over at the school building to see if there was any signs indicating that the culprit was in the building. As far as he could tell it seemed like they were the only ones there, which is to be expecting considering that he wasn't exactly subtle during the day part of the investigation. He wouldn't be surprised if the culprit had become more cautious as a result of his actions. For now at least he would just have to hope they could find a clue about the perpetrator's identity.

“So, I contacted the doll crafter and she said that there’s a switch on each individual part that allows you to detach parts or open them up. Even the eyes have these. Basically, push these buttons and the latches will loosen. Though, these latches are generally hidden under the doll’s clothing.”

It was good to hear that they had a method to look inside the dolls without damaging them, though secretly Nori still wanted to smash them. However, going about the investigation in a less destructive way would lower their chances of alerting the culprit.

“So, lead the way.”

Kinoshita looked over at Kana as Kohaku directed this statement towards her. He was a bit curious about how she planned to get around the schools security. For now he would just silently wait to hear what the strategy was.

Kana nodded, and beckoned for the two to follow along with her. "It's not too difficult to get in, since I have already memorized the location of the security cameras. We just have to go to a particular part of the wall first, before we head in, a dead spot where the cameras don't have in it's sights. Without some sort of outside interference I don't think there is any chance we would be caught." The way Kana explained it might have one believe this was some sort of high risk break in like what you'd see in movies with bank robbers. Kana had studied in detail the outside security before, not just recently, though she went over it again earlier in the day to refresh her memory as a precaution.

Kana led the two around to the side of the campus, staring at the building as they passed by. Even though she came here nearly everyday, it felt like an entirely new place when visited at night. Combined with the fact that they were about to sneak in, it was a bit exciting when compared to normal everyday events. The wall was fairly high, and unless someone had a power suitable for it, or possibly the proper equipment, there was little chance of getting over it easily. It was after all part of the purpose of the wall, if not the primary one. "Right around here there is a gap where the cameras won't see us, it's not such a small gap that you need to be too worried, though. Just stay right around here, and then make sure not to stray too far from me afterwards. This may be a little awkward for you, but I'm going to use my power to lift both of you over the wall one at a time. It won't be dangerous, don't worry." After confirming they were ready, she began to concentrate on Nori, lifting him upwards through the air with her Spatial Control. Luckily he wasn't particularly large, or it might've been outside the ability of her power. Carefully she lifted him over the wall and then lowered him down to the ground. Though she couldn't see him, she was didn't have too much difficulty setting him back down gently. Then she would turn to Kira, and after making sure she, too, was ready, would do the same thing with her.

After setting the two over the wall would come the hard part. She had a bit of a fear of heights, and didn't like to lift herself through the air. She would go through with it, but she had to mentally prepare herself first. In addition to her fear, it was also more difficulty for her to move herself, than to move others. After breathing deeply for a while, she finally built up the nerves. Rather than nerves, perhaps, it was more like she simply didn't want to stand there and be afraid much longer. Finally after waiting a minute or so, she lifted herself up and over the wall with the other two. After landing beside them, she sat there crouched on the ground for a moment, trying to get over the experience. Finally, she stood back up, assuring the other two she would be fine, and pointed across from them. "That will be our way in." Kana was pointing at the school building, towards a window. Likely seemed obvious that a window would be the easiest way in however. Isn't that how it always seemed to be in movies?

As she led them through the dead zone in the camera's sights, she could feel a bit of excitement building up again. At least she thought it was excitement, maybe it was fear instead? With the risk associated there was definitely something to be afraid of. Once they had reached the window she would point up at the lock, partly visible from the outside. Though she was sure they understood the operation of her power at this point, she wanted to demonstrate her technique before them. Not too long after she made sure they noticed, the lock would suddenly flip, and then the window lifted up just a moment afterwards. "Pretty easy, right?" Kana was exuding confidence in herself by this point, a confident smile had already formed upon her face before even waiting to hear any sort of responses. She understood that this wasn't even an uncommon power, however. Of those who actually had esper powers, this would but of the more common varieties. That didn't change Kana's happiness in her own success however.

Kana gestured for the two to go on in before her. She wasn't sure if one of them might have a particular destination in mind first. She supposed Kira probably wanted to demonstrate on one of the dolls perhaps.

As Kana directed Kohaku and Nori through the blind spots in the camera surveillance system, Kohaku had to wonder exactly how many times people had broken in with the security system being this easy to avoid. Then again, it was more likely that it was easy for someone to evade when they had all the necessary information like Kana did. Even so, that led to the question of where the school's budget was fed into.

Though that also begged the question: if it was this simple for the group to do this, how simple was it for the culprit? For all she knew, the culprit could have simply found a way to do the same thing or was perhaps even brazenly going through the front door.

At any rate, Kana had gotten the three of them into the school without much of a fuss. No alarms were tripped and all seemed to be quiet.

“Alright. Let’s go.” She said, directing them to follow behind her. There was definitely only one place she could be going to start things off.

She lead the two of them back to the entranceway—to the doll with the gardening shears. When she was sure that the others had caught up, she picked up the doll and began to fumble around with it, groping around its back until she felt her finger press up against a button.

“So, once you push it down like this, you can pull out the doll’s arm—“ She pulled the arm off like she had said. “Or even the head.” Without hesitation, she pulled off the head.

Setting the body down, she felt around the head behind the hair. “And you can do the same with the head, like so.” After pressing the button she had found, she calmly pulled out the eyes.

To the others, it must have looked like some strange scene—a teenage girl calmly disassembling a body that once resembled a human. To any normal human being, there would be some sense of revulsion to dismantling something like that, but she eerily remained calm as she placed her fingers on the eyes and found buttons to press there. She was opening the eyes, after all—those round, lifelike porcelain eyes.

There was almost a sense of cold, calculated distance as the method of her madness became clear. When the eyes opened on a hinge, inside one of them…

It was a small black device that fit entirely in the doll’s eyes. There was a tiny battery slot on it, some evidence that it held some wireless or Bluetooth functionality, a slot for a USB cord, and, the most important point, a lens.

There was only one thing this could be.

Kinoshita followed Kana as she led them around to the side of the campus. He was impressed that she had actually memorized the locations of all the cameras and even figure out where the blind spots were in the security. Her explanation before made him feel like he was in some kind of spy movie or pulling off a heist, instead of simply breaking into a school in order to get a closer look at a group of dolls. As they made their way towards the wall Nori was checking for his surrounding for any signs of movements that would indicate that someone else was there with them.

Due to his confrontation with Eri and the fact that he had been seen carrying the doll around, it was very likely that the culprit knew about their investigation. As such the one responsible for the dolls could of headed back to the school to attempt to get rid of any evidence they had overlooked before. However, the movement being the culprit was the best case scenario in their current situation. If it turned out to be anyone else such as janitor or another member of the faculty they could get in serious trouble for trying to break in or even worse get framed for the dolls.

The masked villain looked up towards the top of the wall as they approach it, he didn't see any hole to sneak in through so he had to wonder what Kana's plan was. She had led them to this specific spot so he highly doubted that she brought them here without being certain that they could get over it.

"Right around here there is a gap where the cameras won't see us, it's not such a small gap that you need to be too worried, though. Just stay right around here, and then make sure not to stray too far from me afterwards. This may be a little awkward for you, but I'm going to use my power to lift both of you over the wall one at a time. It won't be dangerous, don't worry."

So she's a telekinetic, that could be useful. Telekinesis was one of the most common abilities in Academy City but that didn't mean it was the least valuable. It could be used in a variety of ways and could prove useful in most if not all situations. As far as Nori was concerned Kana's telekinesis could be vital to catching the culprit. As these thoughts ran through his head he gave a quick nod to Kana confirming that he was ready.

Being lifted through the air was definitely an odd experience, he had no one to move on his own but it still almost felt like he was flying almost like the superheroes he used to read about. For a moment a genuine smile appeared on his face. What the hell am I thinking?! Quickly scolding himself, Nori throw out his dreams of the past once again just as he gentle landed on ground. A moment later he was joined by Kohaku and after that Kana.

"That will be our way in."

Nori looked over at the window that Kana was pointing at and followed as she once again began leading them through the dead zones in the security. She seemed to know exactly what she was doing, Kinoshita wouldn't of been too surprised if she had turned out to be a professional bank robber of some sort. Just as they reached the window Kana pointed at the lock and a moment later the window was opened.

"Pretty easy, right?
"Pretty impressive"

One look at the girl's face showed that she was very happy with herself, Nori could only imagine that he was only feeding her ego at this point with his comment but it isn't like there was any real harm in it. He entered through the window after Kohaku and waited for Kana to arrived before listening to what the next part of the plan was.

“Alright. Let’s go.”

Following Kohaku, he found himself back in the entrance hall and felt himself cringe as they once again approach the doll with the shears. He knew that they were going to have to come in contact with the dolls again but their creepiness was only increased by the emptiness, silence, and darkness of the school at night. This uneasiness was only increased further when Kohaku coldly began taking the doll apart.

“So, once you push it down like this, you can pull out the doll’s arm—Or even the head and you can do the same with the head, like so.”

Nori's focused increase greatly as she began to open up the eye. This was the moment of truth, the student council had stated that it had already checked the dolls for cameras but the small black device found inside the eye was evidence that they had been wrong. It was quite obvious the device inside the device inside the eye was a camera due to the lens but there was one important question eating at him.

"Do you think they are watching right now?

It may've been hard to tell, given her confident smile she was already wearing, but she was happy to hear Nori's response. After the two climbed through the window, she followed in after them, then closed the window and relocked it. Just in case, she'd rather not leave it open. She doubted anyone would be able to follow them through the same path, but why risk it?

Kana followed behind the two as they headed back to the entrance way. Much like the outside of the building, the inside was like an entirely different place as well. Considering the fact they were also potentially in the same building with the culprit, it felt suddenly even scarier. The darkness of night, sneaking through an empty school, and watching out for anything suspicious. This could easily become the plot of a movie, though she hoped it wouldn't be the type to end up a horror.

Finally the group had made it back to the entranceway. As they walked up the doll, Kana's thoughts about it became even worse. During the day, they were certainly creepy, but at night, in the dark school building, they were exactly what you would expect to find in a low budget horror movie. A bit unnerving to say nothing else. Despite that, however, Kana awaited to see Kohaku's technique, and see the doll finally dismantled. After all the discussion they had hours ago, whether there was anything in it or not, she simply wanted to see it for herself.

As she watched Kohaku explain, and begin to demonstrate the dismantling, she couldn't help but also think this was no better in the creepy atmosphere. Unsurprisingly, after removing a few pieces, there didn't seem to be anything yet. However, after Kohaku removed the eye, all of them would likely have noticed immediately, and no doubt quickly realize what it was.

"Do you think they are watching right now?"
"I hope not, this may be a bit awkward for them and us.

She was sure the others would be thinking it, too. This conflicted with the report they heard about the doll which was broken apart and they had found no evidence of a camera. It could have multiple possibilities, however. This wasn't proof of any conspiracy or lie just yet. There was the possibility that the culprit had planted that one in the locker room without one, solely since they would know they'd check it. It lessen the chance someone might check the others. There was also the chance that they had been lied to, but without any evidence on that, it was simply suspicion without proof. Kana's interest in the matter had began to surpass any fear she had been feeling before. There was still one big question though. Why? What would anyone gain from these cameras being hidden around the school. She could understand if it had been placed in a way to help cheat, but what would anyone gain from a doll here in the entranceway?

"At least we can understand that the doll's do have some purpose. The questions now are who and why? Why would someone even want a camera in here?" No matter how Kana saw it, this was simply an ordinary entrance to a school building. You would see who entered, but that isn't particularly useful information to most.

“Honestly, I have my doubts as to whether they’re watching us now. In all likelihood, they probably aren’t.” She picked the camera out of the open eye and held it out in her palm. “It’s probably always on and always recording, but I don’t think that anyone is watching us at the moment. The camera doesn’t seem to be big enough to be constantly transmitting data.”

She also pointed towards one area that showed a symbol and an unlit LED. “Plus, this thing seems to have local wireless and bluetooth functionality. In all likelihood, the culprit regularly returns to the scene of the crime to copy and delete footage.”

Kohaku, during all her deductions, decided to neglect the fact that the camera was also likely recording everything that they were doing.

At this point, though, the culprits motives were definitely not something they could guess from just finding the cameras.

Or could they?

“Why would someone want to place a camera here…?” Kohaku muttered as she thought, though her words were without a doubt audible in the stark silence of the hallway. “Was the culprit searching for something…?”

“Plus, this thing seems to have local wireless and bluetooth functionality. In all likelihood, the culprit regularly returns to the scene of the crime to copy and delete footage.”

Nori released a sigh of relief upon hearing Kohaku's analysis, at the very least this meant that the culprit didn't know that his cameras had been found. The less the perpetrator knew about the progress of their investigation the better. The investigation would become incredibly more troublesome if the offender responsible started removing evidence to cover their tracks better.

This discovery of the camera also brought up a very important question, if the dolls had cameras in them why had the student council failed to find them? Was one of the student council's members responsible for the dolls or did some of the dolls just not have cameras in them? He had to hope it was the latter as the former meant that there could've been a camera in the girls locker room.

"At least we can understand that the doll's do have some purpose. The questions now are who and why? Why would someone even want a camera in here?"

“Why would someone want to place a camera here…? Was the culprit searching for something…?”

"I think the better question would be is the culprit looking for someone. This doll is in the entranceway so the purpose of the camera is probably to watch someone as they enter into the building. However, as you said the culprit would have to come back to the camera to get the footage so it wouldn't be the greatest tool if you were trying to figure out the current location of a specific person or group. I could see it being used to figure out someone's daily routine, though the question remains why would someone want to know that."

Kinoshita couldn't say for certain that watching someone was the culprit's motives for setting up the cameras but it seemed like the most logical conclusion to make going from the evidence. He simple said his thoughts out loud to see what his fellow investigators thought of it. While he waited for their response the question of how the student council had missed the cameras was still biting at him from the back of his mind. The group was going to have to check more dolls for him to confirm if the guilty party was a member of the council or not.

Kana nodded as pondered upon what Nori had said. It made sense. One of the only uses one could gain from all these cameras that could be hypothetically all over the school was to learn about a routine, or verify someone still was doing something. Potentially it could be used to blackmail others with certain information, but that would assume that someone was doing something like that within the school already.

"So what next? We know about the dolls purpose to some degree, though we don't have an exact motive. Unless we want to verify the other dolls, should we just wait to see if the culprit is coming to check the cameras? It's unlikely we can gain anything too useful from the cameras ourselves, other than the fact we can use it as evidence."

Kana wasn't too sure what the others wanted at this point. They had a couple options, one she had just listed. But staying here at night didn't provide much else, and so far they had nothing decisive. If they could either find something which could link it to someone or even run into the culprit as they came to check it out, they would be able to resolve it. With just the camera they couldn't do anything but be suspicious.

Planting a camera in the most commonly accessed route was definitely a way to keep track of someone’s whereabouts. Though, the reasons for doing that were still unknown.

Unfortunately, Kohaku did not bring any USB connectors or a laptop with her so forcing her way into the data was an impossibility for her and in all likelihood, Kana and Nori were the same. So, there really was no point in waiting around this doll unless they wanted to wait for the culprit.

“Well, there are a few options available,” Kohaku said, holding the camera in her hand as she put the doll back together piece-by-piece. “The first is going to the other dolls to verify whether they have cameras or not. The second is waiting on location to pounce on the culprit when they show up here to reclaim and erase the data.”

Beyond that, there was a third option. One that linked back to something Reiji had mentioned prior. Though, this option was far more risky.

“There’s also the option of stalking security. There’s no guarantee they’ll break in through any one specific location so staking any one place out could be pointless, but there is the possibility that the culprit can delete the security footage from the cameras themselves. If we focus on any location where the camera footage begins to go haywire, we can catch their location, though again, that’s merely a possibility.”

They finally had the evidence that proved the dolls served some kind of purpose but they still didn't have enough information to identify the culprit or even understand what their motives were. They didn't know how the culprit got into the building, though after Kana's display it didn't seem like it would be that hard to avoid the security. At this point the only options seemed to be waiting in the building in an attempt to catch the perpetrator red handed or report the camera to the student council to help their investigation. However, reporting the camera would only make them look suspicious and they could get in serious trouble if it was discovered they broke into the school after hours.

“Well, there are a few options available, The first is going to the other dolls to verify whether they have cameras or not. The second is waiting on location to pounce on the culprit when they show up here to reclaim and erase the data. There’s also the option of stalking security. There’s no guarantee they’ll break in through any one specific location so staking any one place out could be pointless, but there is the possibility that the culprit can delete the security footage from the cameras themselves. If we focus on any location where the camera footage begins to go haywire, we can catch their location, though again, that’s merely a possibility.”  

Kana and Kohaku were right, they needed to decide what their next plan of action was going to be. Of Kohaku's three options only the first one seemed to make completely sense to Kinoshita, second and third options relied too heavily on the culprit deciding to break in tonight, especially since Nori had probably alerted them to their investigation after carrying a doll around and getting in a fight with Eri. Another problem with the third option was that it relied on the culprit hacking into the security cameras, Kana had proven just a few minutes before that the school's security could be evaded without the having to do anything to the camera footage.

"I think we should probably check the other dolls first, since we don't know for certain if the culprit plans on showing up tonight. It's even possible that they are deliberately not showing up tonight in order to avoid us, which is my fault for causing a scene earlier. Also is there any way for us to see what the cameras recorded? I would like to try to get an idea of what they were looking for.

Kana glanced around the room occasionally as though suspicious someone could be watching at any moment, as she listened to Kohaku's take on the situation. Most of her suggestions made sense. She had considered a couple of them as well, though she had dismissed the thought of security cameras being too useful. Depending on the method this culprit took, it could be a waste of time, unless they intended to split up and cover the bases, but that likely wasn't too wise.

As she was pondering the situation further herself, Nori was quicker to answer with his thoughts. It seemed Nori chose the most logical route, and while Kana did agree with it, there was a good chance that it would simply lead to more of the same evidence. Still, it wouldn't hurt to confirm they all serve similar purposes. Kana nodded in agreement.

"It is definitely more logical to check more dolls for evidence, to at least verify whether they all have cameras, though I do think it's a safe assumption to think they do. So for the moment, I'll agree with Kinoshita-san."

Kana didn't think looking through the videos would do the three of them much good. You could tell by the angle what it would likely pick up, and they'd probably be unable to pick out just who or what they were spying on. But it was likely not too hard, unless it was encrypted in some way to simply check it out with equipment on the campus.

"Well, it shouldn't be unreasonable to think there should be a computer we could monitor the video with on the campus, but do you really think we'd learn anything from it? We'd just see the students entering into the building, would we not?" Kana turned to face the same view the camera would've been facing in, and didn't see anything particularly noteworthy about the view.

"Well, it shouldn't be unreasonable to think there should be a computer we could monitor  the video with on the campus, but do you really think we'd learn anything from it? We'd just see the students entering into the building, would we not?"

Kana had misunderstood the point that Kinoshita was trying to make. He didn't just want to check one camera he wanted to check many of not all of them. However, he was assuming that the rest of the dolls also contained cameras in order to justify his reasoning. If all the dolls were being used for surveillance, what were they being used to observe? Since the only camera they had found so far had been placed in the entryway his best guess was that the perpetrator was trying to observe a certain individual as they moved throughout the school building.  

The only thing that was bothering him now was why the they were trying to obverse someone. He just couldn't understand their reasoning for it, he doubted that they served any nefarious purpose but their purpose still confused him. They couldn't be using it to cheat off a certain person since they would have to wait till after school to check the cameras and they would of already had to submit any assessment before then. The dolls were also in different homerooms and since one person couldn't be in two separate homerooms the tracking a specific person idea no longer made sense. Unless the one responsible was trying to find a certain group's pattern and not just an individual. He was going to do more investigating before he could draw any clear conclusion and thinking of all the possibilities was starting to give him a headache.

"I don't just want to check this camera, if the other dolls have cameras I won't to check those as well. I want to try to see if all the cameras are watching a certain group or individual. I can't say I understand the culprits reasoning but this is the only possible purpose I can think of for the dolls going from our current evidence. Also if we are all agreed on checking the dolls I think we should go to the one with the rose eye next since it is the only other one we should look at, unless you think we should split up."

Nori suggested checking the rose eyed doll but he really wanted to find the doll in his own classroom that had be creeping him out since it first appeared. He was going to find great joy in finally taking that doll apart but finding the culprit was his priority, since he had quite the bone to pick with them. He had already started moving towards the next doll when he finally remember something very important.

"Kana, is there any security cameras inside the building we have to worry about?"

He didn't want to conduct this entire investigation only to get framed for the dolls at the end of it. Being caught on camera after hours around the dolls would make the whole group the subject of immense suspicion and Nori just didn't feel like dealing with another Eri situation.

Kana still wasn't certain it'd be so easy to gain information from all the cameras, but it was true that they didn't exactly have any other leads besides checking more of the dolls. For the time being it would seem best to go ahead and check them out, and Nori could go ahead and try to look through the information if he liked. Kana simply shrugged, accepting that she didn't have a better idea for the moment.  It was a little disappointing, but aimlessly checking each doll was all they really had.

"Very well, Kinoshita-kun. It's true that we're still mostly clueless, so we may as well begin checking them out. I'm not sure it matters too much which we check out first, so that works for me."

Kana didn't feel that it mattered too much which doll was chosen for now. Based on the little she understood, and the amount of dolls in the second year area, it was hard to think a single doll could be too much more important than the rest, but it's still possible that most are just decoys.

Just as Nori was starting to head off to their next destination, it seemed he realized there was still the small problem of the security cameras. "Well, yeah. There are security cameras inside here as well. Due to the angles they're set at they are sometimes easier to avoid than the ones outside, if you're careful. For some of the others I can help out by changing the direction they're pointing in, though that may seem a little suspicious when the videos are viewed, it's not like they'll know it was us."

Kana began to wonder if it would've been easier to simply shut the security system off, but decided it probably wasn't worth it. Who knows if there could be some sort of secondary system or alarm for such an occasion.

“In that case, it probably would not be too prudent to split up if only one person here can divert the more problematic cameras.” Kohaku mulled over the possibilities as she spoke. She had accepted Nori’s premise that it was better to determine which dolls had cameras so they could more accurately flip the chessboard on the culprit.

At the same time, keeping together, while being the time-tested countermeasure to preventing losses in a horror movie, was definitely prudent, Kohaku had to worry about the efficacy of going one at a time to all the dolls. They had already taken about fifteen minutes with the doll who kept the entranceway.

There was no telling how long things could take if they went one-by-one together.

This was a quandary. Sacrifice safety in numbers for speed or to sacrifice efficiency for absolute safety in numbers. No matter what, Kohaku could not find herself bringing up the option. In reality, splitting up was too risky and horror movie cliches dictated that the act of splitting up would lead to casualties.

“In that case, we have a number of classrooms to check. So, how about...Class 2-A?” Kohaku spoke her mind. It was a bit self-serving but she wanted to confirm whether home base was in the culprit’s gaze. Though, there were a few places that she definitely wanted to check on and one place in particular that seemed a bit odd. Perhaps someone would object.

Kinoshita had thought it would have been a good idea to check a doll they had already looked at thus his suggestion of the rose eyed doll. However, Kohaku’s suggestion of checking the 2-A doll wasn’t a bad idea. The doll in 2-A was the most recent appearance and it was possible they could find a clue by looking into it. Despite this he still thought looking into the dolls they had already seen was the best place to start. It was always possible to go back and check the other dolls later. The only thing besides besides the doll choice he needed to worry about was the cameras but since it didn’t seem like the group was going to split up then Kana would be able to take of any cameras that got into their way.

“I think we should check the dolls we have all seen first since we have already gotten a thorough look over them. Hopefully we could find some kind of clue or hint by taking a better look at them but if not there will still be plenty of time to check the doll in 2-A.”

As Nori finished his sentence something of vital importance came to his mind. What were they going to do with the camera, if the camera was recording right now the perpetrator would know that their scheme had been revealed the next time they checked the cameras. If they took or broke the camera, the culprit would be alerted to their progress as well. There didn't seem like any good way to deal with the camera. So they either had to find out the culprit’s identity by the end of the night or deal with the difficulty of finding them when they are on high alert.

“Before we go though what should we do about the camera? If we break it or take it the culprit will know that they have been found out and if it is recording right now the perpetrators will know that it was us that found him out once he checks the camera tomorrow”

It would be so much easier for them if the culprit just showed up tonight so they could catch them. Yet there was no guaranteeing that they would make an appearance so it was just wishful thinking at this point. They also wouldn't be able to hand the perpetrator in if they caught them tonight because they would have to admit to their own crimes of breaking into the school. The best scenario for now seem to be discovering the identity of the person behind the dolls through the clues and then reporting them to the student council.

Kana didn't particularly mind which doll they decided to check, since in the end they all had equal value as far as she was concerned, especially the ones in classrooms. While the two of them seemed to mind, and discussed it a little. Kana simply shrugged, she had no opinion on which to check out, with their current level of information. "In the end, it shouldn't matter too much which we check first. Lets just finish checking the ones we've seen for now." Knowing it wasn't wise to leave it as a tie, though, she ended up simply picking a side, so they could move on from it.

With that settled Kana had thought it time to move on, but there was another topic at hand. One which Kana personally didn't have to think long upon. The way she saw it, there was only one advantage to be gained by leaving the camera. If the culprit checked the doll, they wouldn't know anything was up until they checked the video recording. In the end the camera would lead to the investigation being discovered if they didn't resolve things tonight, so it was simply a matter of whether they wanted to have extra time, if this doll was happened to be checked first, or whether they would want to risk becoming known to the culprit if the video was checked.

There were advantages for each side, but Kana would rather just bring it with them. The culprit has likely been taking action under the impression that it's possible to get caught. They might be more careful in the worst case scenario, and better than them being visibly known, at least the way Kana saw it.

"I think I'd rather us simply keep it. Their are advantages both ways, but I'd rather, if we don't figure out anything notable tonight, that they don't know it's us looking for them. Though I suppose we could just come back and grab it later if we really wanted, but do you intend to simply leave any cameras we find and round them up later? Doesn't that seem a little troublesome if we're going around to them now as is?" In the end, thinking they could solve the crime or capture the culprit with certainty tonight may be a bit arrogant. They could get lucky, but she saw too much risk in leaving the camera here as evidence of them on it.

"It seems the vote is two to one so the we'll check the rose eyed doll next. We can go see the other doll after that"

Upon hearing Kana's confirmation of his plan it seemed to Nori that their current plan of action had been decided. They were going to check the dolls they had seen first and than move on to the dolls that hadn't been seen yet. Despite the confirmation it was obvious that the girl was just siding with him to break the tie not because she thought it was the better idea. He himself had to admit he might of just been being difficult by going against Kohaku's original plan since truly it didn't matter which ones they checked. However, there was one thing that was still nothing the masked villain, why didn't they find any evidence of the camera the the student council checked.

The student council had smashed a doll, even if the camera was small they should of noticed it in the shattered pieces of the doll right? Was it possible that the eye hadn't been broken so the camera remained hidden or was a member of the student council in on the scheme? Did some of the dolls not have cameras in them and if so why? Many questions were flying around inside his head but he didn't have answers to any of them. All he knew was someone was setting up dolls in the school that had cameras installed in them. He tried to think of all the possibilities but none of them made sense to him. The one in the girl's locker room could of just been the action of a pervert but if it was there was no need to fill the rest of the school with dolls. The whole dolls thing just confused him but there was one thing he was certain about, he was going to find the one responsible for putting that doll behind him in the classroom. He was a villain, he was suppose to be spiteful even if he was currently playing the good guy it was just to accomplish his own goals.

Nori's thought were only dragged back from his fantasies of catching the culprit when Kana began mentioning the cameras. It made sense to him, take the cameras so the culprit couldn't figure out exactly who they were. If they left the camera the culprit would not only know he had been found out but would also know who he had to hide from. Nori didn't want to deal with a target who knew he was coming for them so taking the cameras was definitely the best idea in his opinion.

"Makes sense to me, would make things a lot more difficult if the culprit knew that it was us coming after him. So lets just take the camera from his doll and move on to the next"

Just like that Nori would turn and face in the direction of the room containing the rose eyed doll. He couldn't lead the group because he needed Kana to move the cameras so he would wait patiently for the camera to be picked up and Kana to begin leading the way.

With the decision of their destination settled, Kana was eager to move on. It would probably be a little too convenient if we were to randomly stumble upon a bigger clue while searching these dolls, but... maybe they made a mistake while setting one up. Though they had an idea of what it was they would find in each one, there was always a minor chance they could stumble upon something exciting. Kana nodded to them, and gestured for them to follow. While it didn't have to be her leading, she could understand the others being wary. She would've been able to handle the cameras just fine while following them.

Unlike on the outside, it wasn't particularly exciting or anything. No special routes, just walking through the halls, but with it being as dark as it was, it still felt like an entirely new environment. It was in these kinds of settings were one would expect to find ghosts, or encounter a serial killer. While the former sounded ridiculous, the latter felt plausible, despite the criminal that they were after likely not being anything quite that dangerous. Then again, it was impossible to judge their objectives were. If they were trying to get information on someone, it could be something as crazy or radical. Kana both hoped it wasn't, and sort of hoped it were. It was definitely something she was afraid of, but the possibility of something that unusual happening

Considering the classroom they were heading to, it was obvious that they would know, as well, but it somehow felt natural as the one leading to let them know they were at their destination.

"Alright, we're here." She had turned to face them as she said, before looking back towards the door. Kana slid the door open, and then gestured for them to head in before her.

Kohaku had been surprisingly careless. While she was putting the dolls back together, she had forgotten to place the doll’s camera back within its eye. It was a strange lapse in her common sense for sure. But, it seemed that mistake would bear some fruit as the others decided it would be best to keep the camera on them.

“I guess I’ll hold onto it, then.” Kohaku spoke. She simply placed the camera inside her pocket. After all, it was small enough that she could keep it on her person.

In the end, though. Neither of them seemed to pick up on the fact that there was an odd location out that should have been checked first—one that seemed to break the conditions that the other dolls were behind.

As she followed the other two, she kept watch of the surroundings until they reached Classroom 2-C. But, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

Even as she opened up the door to Classroom 2-C and peered in, nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. All that was there was the expected stillness of the classroom under the moonlight refracting through the window and the eerie doll which remained where it was left before.

Not even a hint of human presence remained, as expected.

As she walked in, she asked a simple question. “So, are we taking this one apart as well?”

---

Under the moonlight, a single figure stood at the doorway to Nagatenjouki Academy. Holding a smartphone in one hand, cradling a laptop bag in the other arm and staring at the electronic lock, the figure looked at the entry data since the lock was activated for the night.

“One entry prior...”

The person muttered, staring at the log before pressing a few buttons.

“Security network breached. Dummy footage trigger prepared.”

It was hardly the first time this person had done this. They had snuck into this building multiple times before, after all, and left without a trace beyond the dolls. Covering up had become quite the specialty.

But, the startling fact was that they had not broken in like the investigation group had. They simply walked through the front door. That was all they needed.

They moved over the entranceway slowly and moved to behind the counter. Opening up the laptop bag, the figure set up a laptop, a charger, and numerous other devices that were all connected to the laptop before dropping the brightness of the monitor to zero.

“Relay point, set.”

After leaving the bag there, they made their way over to the entrance hall which connected the entranceway to the school. Sitting there was the doll with the shears, left in a similar position to how they had last seen it.

“Let’s start the first data transfer.” Tapping a few icons on the phone, they opened up an app and checked the connection.

But nothing happened. The light that was supposed to be seen through the eyes when the camera connected to the phone was not blinking at all.

This was not a malfunction.

The camera was missing.

The figure’s eyes widened as they began to run.

Someone had taken the camera. The others were in danger. They needed to secure the most important one. 2-C.

Nori watched carefully as Kohaku placed the doll's camera into her pocket. He truly wanted to analyze the footage, look at what the culprit was seeing on a daily basis, and try to understand what the whole point of this is. If he was going to punch the person's light out he at least wanted to know what they were looking for so desperately. Though he was also have to ask them why hiding the cameras in dolls was the idea they decided to end up using, even if the cameras were hidden the dolls weren't the most incognito carriers.

Seeing that there wasn't going to be much more discussion on the matter of what their next move was Nori began to make his way towards classroom 2-C. As he watched Kana turned the cameras away he truly had to be thankful that the girl had telekinesis. He could have used his ability on the cameras but that would involve breaking them and if he did get found out for it he would've been in some pretty severe trouble. He also wasn't sure what the white haired girl's power was meaning it was possible that she wouldn't have been able to deal with the cameras either. He really should've inquired about what their abilities were before they started this whole operation but it was too late now at least he knew one of their powers. However, all these thoughts quickly evaporated upon his entrance into the room when his eyes fell upon the doll.

He truly did hate them with a burning passion and he still felt the urge to smash the rose eyed doll in front of them to smithereens. Yet he held these feelings back with the simply thought that if he controlled himself they could eventually find the person responsible and he could make them suffer. Little did he know that said person was currently making their way towards the room.

"Yea, we should take this doll apart as well though this time we should probably just checked the eyes first since if there is a camera it is most likely there.

Responding to Kohaku he made his way over to the doll, picked it up by its neck, and lifted it into the air. Taking a quick scan over it before he turned around and carried it back to the girl, holding it out to her once he got close to arm's distance away from her.

"I'll leave the doll dissecting to you"

Kana followed the two of them into the classroom, with a quick glance to scan the room. She hadn't expected to find anything out of the ordinary anyway, but she could hope. Nori walked over to grab the doll, and then brought it to Kohaku for her to take it apart. Kana was a little curious just to confirm that the doll was identical with disassembled, but ultimately there wouldn't be much to see here beyond that confirmation.

"So once we take this apart, where do you think we should hit next? The room Kohaku wanted? It doesn't look like we'll find anything else in here, from what I can tell." Kana gestured towards the otherwise normal classroom, which seemed mostly empty of information. It was exactly as one would expect a classroom to appear, which is admittedly what the three of them knew they would find, but it didn't give much to look through when trying to solve a case like this. It really did seem like the only information they could find would be from checking the dolls.

Kana herself still wasn't certain whether they'd be able to realistically find much out by just watching the camera's feed either. There would be hints in it, but without knowing what the culprit is looking for, it would be tough to know what to look for. At this point Kana was simply repeating the same thoughts she has had since they first discovered the camera, but it was something which was hard for her to ignore.

After Nori had given her the doll, Kohaku had almost instantly begun the dissection. After doing the first dissection, she was quite surprised how close to second nature doing it was. She was easily able to pull it apart mindlessly so she was able to regret not letting the others do it themselves for practice. There were plenty of dolls left to go through, after all.

“There’s that, the locker room, or any of the other ones that showed up in second-year and third-year classrooms,” she said to Kana, as she finished performing the rather nausea-inducing task of opening up the eye of the doll.

As expected, there was an identical camera to the one they had found in the entranceway doll.

After laying the opened pieces of the dolls down onto a nearby desk, she lay the camera out on her hand.

“Should we really just be collecting these cameras, though?” She asked, looking up from her cameras to her investigation team.

Her mind darted to the camera locations once again. “Now that I think about it...how many of these dolls are dec—”

Before she had finished her sentence, the sound of a shutter coming from somewhere aside from the two cameras she was in possession of cut off any further release of thought.

“Dammit, I forgot to mute the shutter!” She heard a loud whisper from a female voice before it was followed by rapid footsteps that were getting further away from the classroom. It was obvious what had just happened.

Nori had to agree with Kana on the fact there wasn't much else to look for in this room. While he was hoping that they would’ve discovered more clues by coming here it seemed that all they had accomplished was proving that more than one doll, potentially even all of the dolls had hidden cameras in them. The culprit's motives were still a complete mystery to him along with their identity, which was the information Nori was really looking for. However, part of his vengeful thoughts were suppressed by the eerie sight of seeing Kohaku take apart the doll as if it was second nature and a small chill had went down his spine as she opened up the dolls eye to reveal the camera. This was why he hated the dolls so much, they seemed to realistic as if they could come alive if you looked away too long. Watching the girl open up the eye almost made him feel as if he was watching a real eye split open and even though he was use to seeing horrible things, he was still plagued by a sudden rush of nausea while watching the dismantling.

”I guess the locker room would be a good place to check next since it's not in a homeroom unlike the others. However, I also don't know what else we could possibly learn from checking more dolls besides confirming the presence of cameras in them unless one of you know some other type of clue we could look for”

The masked villain posed this question to his two companions hoping one of them had better luck figuring out this case in their heads than he was. The only place he could think to look fit more clues would be to check the camera footage but even then they wouldn't know what they were looking for. It was all quite frustrating to say the least. Nori turned his head to Kohaku as she asked her question

”We should be doing more I think, but I don't know where else we should be looking besides these cameras. If you have any ideas share them”

Kinoshita was curious what the girl’s next statement was going to be but his attention was suddenly grabbed by the sound of shutter cut her off. The moment the a small whisper of a voice appeared after the sound Nori took off after it. This was the culprit, it had to be. Who else would be in the school at this hour? He had to catch them, one to finally bring an end to the dolls but more importantly he needed to get the camera. It was quite obvious the person had taken a picture of them with the dolls and Nori had no desire to be framed. As such he began a mad charge after the perpetrator. If the fleeing party was unfortunate enough to fall within the range if his ability, he wouldn't hesitate to freeze them in their tracks