Fushigi High: The New Generation

"Ah, yes....thank you, Mr Speyers, Mr Satou. Your help would be appreciated. I admit, I'm no interrogator." Ms Shima demurred, smiling sheepishly.

As Kimiko spoke and made to leave, to assist the students in reaching the dormitories, Ms Shima gave her a genuine smile, and lowered her voice to quickly speak to her. "Thank you so much, Kimiko. I have a feeling it's only going to get worse here, and your help is much appreciated. Just keep away from Hatsumomo, yes?" She gave a weak laugh, before leading the way to her office.

- - - - 
Ms Shima's Office
- - - -

Away from the huge ampitheater, the cosiness of Ms Shima's office was welcome. It was by no means a small office, definitely an improvement on the office she used to have when she'd first worked at the academy. She was sat behind her desk, upon which was a large collection of novelty office items, bright pink pens and blue stationery, no doubt a desperate attempt to inject some jollity into the room, which was undercut by the very obvious thick iron bars on the windows. 

Hikaru and Masato were present, and the students were sat in front of them. Ms Shima picked up some garish looking hand puppets from a side table, smiling manically as she did.

"Whoops! Don't think we'll be needing these, will we!" She tittered, a laugh under cut with nervousness. "So, guys-"

She began informally, holding her hands up in a "peace" gesture.

"You're not in trouble, we know that when the student body erupted, you all remained seated, and thats- well, thats what we like here at the academy. We've reviewed camera footage, and we know that Priya spoke to all of you before she ran off. Naturally, she can't tell exactly WHAT she said. We just wondered if she told you where she was going?"

She smiled sheepishly, and looked towards Hikaru and Masato. "And my colleagues may also have some questions for you, too. So, Mr Speyers, Mr Satou.....if you would like to...." She spoke, finishing awkwardly.

Santos groaned as he rolled his eyes. He was gonna made a snide comment about puppets, Miss Shima's playful actions and the colorful objects in the room but really didn't want to make thing any more of a hassle then they already were. He wanted to be done with the whole thing now and he figured the quickest way for that was to state things as factual as possible.

"I believe I state a fact that all of us student will agree on that she did not tell us exactly where she was going." He stated answering the question directly. "however I do know she had nothing to do with the diversion that came up."

"and how exactly do you come to that conclusion." Masato quickly asked

Santos smirked at the math teacher "because she was looking to one of us to make one and when one presented itself in the form of the chaos that happened she dismissed that need finding it filled and used that to make her escape. If she had planned the chaos she would have not asked in the first place." He stated

Masato hummed as he gave a slight nod "I see. That makes sense."

Santos hummed as he looked to the group then Hikaru and Miss Shima "anything else you like to know?"

Meika reclined in the chair as she stared at the ceiling, groaning. It was the first day, basically the first hours and she found her way into the principal's office. Looking over at Karma and Santos "We don't know anything. We didn't see anything, just like you. We were in the auditorium JUST like you. I find it stupid that you wasted our time to bring us in here and ask us questions all of us knew." She started to push off with her foot, tilting her chair upwards to and fro. "What you'd better off be doing is looking for her and letting us get used to this dump." She said with a sneer, balancing her chair on the back two legs nonchalantly. She glanced at Karma for a second more, then returned to looking at the ceiling.

"indeed that is my conclusion as well." Masato stated "these people do not know what happened to their classmate." He looked at Miss Shima "perhaps we should investigate other angles."

Ms Shima swallowed as she faced all of the replies. 

"We....we can't see her on any of the CCTV cameras. We know she went into the bathroom, but of course, there's no cameras in there, there's no window to climb out of without a welding torch, and the blueprints show no exit. We- I- I'm at the end of my tether worrying."

She composed herself. "Look, I know you think it's annoying of me to call you all in here, but you have to understand. You're the ONLY lead I have. This is day one. And...well...I'm trying to help as best I can, because-"

She broke off as the sharply beautiful Hatsumomo Nitta, director of finance, swept into the room. She inspected her phone swiftly, placing it back into her jacket pocket, as a silent guard snuck in behind her.

"I'm going to need to speak to the children."

Ms Shima lowered her head sadly. She'd been hoping to avoid this, that was clear.

"Listen up, 'students.' This isn't Fushigi any more." Ms. Nitta spoke, to the point and business-like. "It's a prison, and one that runs on a profit. The company I work for tolerates no leaks, no losses and no ghost stories. Priya Gullatti has disappeared in a freak incident, and our Twitter feed is still raving about our successful first day. You're not rich kids obtaining the best education money can buy. You're inmates, and sadly, no one is going to care about a stupid con artist running afoul of 'supernatural entities'."

She tilted her head a little, sadly. "Here, you're all serving time, for a myriad of crimes, the severity of which is meaningless. Here, you will receive an economy diet, basic schooling, and will serve community service. I appreciate you telling Ms. Shima, who still seems convinced this is a high school, and Misters Hikaru and Satou what you know, but now its time you lined up for your jurisdictions. Latecomers unfortunately get some of the least favorable jobs, I know, but it can't be helped. 6 hours a day in the factory sound fine?"

She paused, tapping at her phone, before Ms. Shima finally stuttered into action.

"You....you can't take them, Ms. Nitta. I....I have a job for them. They're going to investigate Priya's disappearance. After all, wouldnt the fans love to know that there's still strange things going on here-"

"I genuinely hope you aren't threatening me with spilling information, Ms. Shima." Nitta responded, face still staring at her phone. "After all, all staff here agreed to a confidentiality gag order. It's a prison, not a basis for a screenplay, and not a place to be gossiped about. Even our resident novelist Hikaru knows that after he leaves here, revealing even a drip of information will get him sued to oblivion."

At this, she looked Hikaru in the eyes. "But something tells me that the....ambience....isn't why he OR Mr Satou for that matter, took this job. Perhaps fond memories....of his school days?"

She smiled, and it wasn't a kind one. "Very well. Have your little pet project, Ms. Shima. They report to you."

Hatsumomo Nitta looked back at the students and smiled once more. "Enjoy your stay at Fushigi Academy, inmates."

With that, she left the room with her guard, Ms Shima breathing heavily.

"I see... so she went into the bathroom..." He was about to speak to Hikaru about his book mentioning the bathrooms as the scene for one of the main ghost stories when Miss Nitta came in and started talking about how the school was a prison for profit and that the students were about to get the poor end jobs like factory work for being latecomers but Miss Shima stated that she was going to use them to investigate the disappearance and Ms. Nitta revealed that the staff were under gag orders.

Santos gave a sour look to Ms. Nitta when she mentioned factory work and was about to mention that prison labor was not supposed to be part of his sentence and that they would hear from his lawyer but when Miss Shima spoke up. His eyes went to her in a sour look.

"what now I'm going to be investigating this disappearance? Give me a break what do you guys think I am Sherlock Holmes?" He thought then hummed "wait what is worse, investigating something that I don't give a crap about or doing six hours of factory work a day?" He hummed as a balance scale appeared in his mind weighing the options and with a crash to the investigation side. Santos determined it would be a lot better for him to do the investigating then factory work. I mean what's the worst that could happen, Not find anything?

Santos hummed after Ms. Nitta left and spoke "so has anyone gone into the bathrooms and searched them top to bottom for any hiding places or are we inmates supposed to do that?" He stated "I mean unless there's a hidden secret passage in there leading to another place she's in there right?"

Masato exhaled "one would surmise that." He admitted

Santos scoffed "come on where else would she be huh?" He gave a look to Masato "unless you all know something you aren't telling."

Masato looked at Hikaru "The girl Bathroom was the scene for one of the stories you wrote correct?" He asked Hikaru

“Y’all owe miss Shima a thank you, granted the paper work she has on us all got us in a bind for how far we can protect you from well punishment from her” He mumbled to himself before smirking.
“Granted I am making like a truck load off cash from that new novel Phantom Thief Shokue it is big hit in japan he doesn’t just steal items he steals hearts!” Hikaru explained granted it was more like a shameless product placement message if anything

“I however do not wished to be sued” He muttered out loud before looking at Masatou. “Oh you mean the one that’s fictional thats book two. They wanted something paranormal so I wrote one with entirely fictional cast in an entirely fictional place” He said almost as if that line had been rehursed. “Oh but yes there is a ghost in the bathroom” he stated.

“They are going to be making it into a movie in 2019” He pointed out.