[SS] Through the Eyes of the Silent Dolls

Silence permeated throughout the halls of Nagatenjouki Academy at night. However, in one location, there was the sound of a pair of footsteps resounding. It was the hallway which hugged the homerooms for the second year students. In contrast to the restrictive nature of the district in which the school was contained, the hallways and classrooms were much larger than those in an average Japanese school. Perhaps it was meant for the school to symbolize an emphasis on intellectual freedom.

In the sacred halls of learning, students were free to move about as much as necessary to stimulate their brains. Without some freedom, the students would never be able to nourish their specialties. That was likely the philosophy the founders of the school were going for when they made this decision.

A lone figure cradling a pair of large objects in their arm made their way to a classroom on this floor. As they stood at the door, they pulled out a smartphone from their pocket and started fiddling around. In a couple of minutes, the electronic lock on the classroom door had signaled with a green light that it was now unlocked. Slowly opening up the door, the figure made sure that almost no sound came out and disturbed the pristine silence of the empty school.

As the figure moved into the classroom, they surveyed the room before placing one of the objects in a location. With a quick nod, the figure closed something before leaving another one in plain sight on a shelf in the back of the classroom. The figure then quickly made their way out of the classroom door they had entered through, reset the lock, and made their way to the exit, leaving behind only the eerie silence of the night.

---

“It really is creepy.”

“I never thought our classroom would have been hit twice with this.”

Murmurs rose throughout the classroom and coalesced into a cacophony of low humming where certain words were still distinguishable. Even from the other side of the doors and the walls of the classroom, Kohaku could discern random words that were being spoken.

Kohaku could easily fathom a guess as to what the others were murmuring about. A certain odd occurrence had been taking place throughout the school over the past couple of months. At first, it was sporadic and had really only been rumors. However, the occurrences ascended beyond mere rumor the moment it happened for the first time to Kohaku’s own homeroom. To the rest of the school, it had ascended beyond mere rumor when it became to frequent for control.

Nevertheless, it was quite strange that it was supposedly happening a second time in Kohaku’s homeroom. Would someone really want to strike twice in the same place? Not even lightning does that.

As she slid open the back door to her classroom, she noticed that all of the students who had arrived by this point were crowded around and focused on a single point in the back of the classroom: a single bookshelf that stood adjacent to a window. Since she sat closer to the center of the classroom, Kohaku dropped her bag onto her desk before making her way to the crowd.

One of the girls turned her head slightly and caught Kohaku in her peripheral vision. “Ah, Kira-san. Over here!” Weaving through gaps in the crowd, Kohaku made her way to the front where the girl who had waved her over. After stopping next to the girl, Honda Hiroko, if Kohaku remembered her name correctly, Honda pointed to middle of the bookshelf to an odd sight. “There’s another one. It’s really creepy…”


As Kohaku looked at it, she confirmed that it was indeed what she had suspected. It was small, but not small enough that it could not be held or cradled in one’s arms. The humanoid figure was covered in a frilly pink overcoat with a red ribbon in front covering a puffy white underdress. On its feet were red slippers reminiscent of ballet slippers with red ribbons coming out from them and criss-crossing up its legs. Its blonde ringlet-curled hair was tied up with a pink, red, and white ribbon. The light from the sun reflected off its green eyes and the porcelain skin that made up its face, showing a smile only a doll could give off.

“Honestly, it’s actually pretty elegant-looking.” Kohaku retorted, leaving Honda slightly stunned.

“Do you actually like dolls, Kira-san?”

“It’s less that I like dolls and more that I enjoy things that are elegant and I’d say this doll fits into that category.”

“I guess everyone has their own weird tolerances.”

“It’s quite rude to judge people based on their hobbies and tastes, Honda-san.” Kohaku faced Hiroko with narrowed eyes.

“Blunt as always, aren’t ya?” Honda chuckled before hearing a loud clapping sound from behind her.

As everyone in the group turned around, they saw the tall, dark, and handsome class rep, Kanazawa Reiji, walking behind the teacher’s podium and crossing his arms. He was a slender man who wore a pair of glasses at all times. Kohaku could hardly remember a time when he was not. It ended up making him come off as the aloof, intellectual type who was always in control.

“Reeeeijiiii-sama!” In an incoherent and dissonant cry, a number of girls ran up to him, many with luminescent blushes on their faces glints in their eyes.

“There’s another one in here!”

“There’s probably a ghost putting these creepy things up!”

“Maybe someone put a hidden camera in there to take pictures of Reiji-sama!”

“They have great taste then, if they did!”

“Please help us!”

Kohaku could not even change the expression on her face. Because of how he came off, he became quite the chick magnet. Girls from other classes would even try to swarm over him. Even Kohaku could admit that she found him to be quite attractive. “Look’s like the class rep’s trying to calm the situation, huh.” But, there was something about him she could not put her finger on. There was something that just irked her and she could not tell what.

“Everybody in your seats. The teacher will be here in a few minutes.” He said with another clap after a short pause. Consequently, the students, love-struck girls included, all went to their seats as the day began.

---

Thinking she could escape the tense atmosphere of the classroom by going to the cafeteria for lunch was a terrible mistake. Even if she liked the doll she decided to call “Little Berry”, the rest of her class seemed to be quite unnerved by it.

The cafeteria, which Kohaku had expected to be her reprieve from a tense atmosphere, turned out to be a tense atmosphere of its own. Despite the warm light provided from the sun going through the glass windows, the cafeteria felt quite stifled.

The doll situation clearly was becoming more and more of a detriment to the mental health of the students. But, what could Kohaku do? No matter how much she wanted to help the situation, the only option possible to end this was to find the culprit and put a stop to it.

But, Kohaku did not hold the manpower to do so. Still, it was not like she could give up on this.

As she chewed on the mapo doofu she had decided to take for lunch, she tried to ponder as she sat on a lonely table next to the window. “Honestly, I need to find a way to fix this. Teenagers’ mental health isn’t absolutely resilient.”

As she chewed down another bite of her mapo doofu, another person sat down at her table, making it slightly less lonely. However, at first glance, he seemed to be a strange one. While he wore the standard issue uniform, there was one thing that was far too striking to ignore. Tied around his face was a mix between a mask and ribbon, colored in a vibrant red. It was an odd choice of clothing to wear, especially due to how long the portions of the eye mask behind his head looked. Kohaku was unable to tell what he was after with that odd choice of clothing. Was he trying to emulate some masked hero character or was he a chuunibyou?

In contrast to the masked hero motif, he gave off an obviously fake smile. Even someone like her could tell how manufactured it was. From the looks of it, he wanted something out of Kohaku. It was the only reason anyone would ever come up to another person they had never met before with a manufactured smile.

"What do you know about the dolls appearing around the school?"

That was definitely strange. Most people would have came up and introduced themselves first instead of jumping straight to the point. This kind of action the masked boy was displaying was definitely far more fitting of someone like Kohaku.

She did have to question why the boy was asking him. Was it because he happened to know that she was from the class that had recently been visited by a new doll or was it because she happened to be sitting alone at the right place and just been easier to approach?

Before she could answer, however, she made a mental note of the other girl who had taken her seat at the table. The twin tailed girl seemed to be eyeing the two of them as the boy had been speaking. Perhaps, she overheard him and wanted to see if she could squeeze out any information on the dolls.

Truly, this lunch table was being occupied with people who did not understand the meaning of subtlety.

After swallowing the bit in her mouth, she opened her mouth to speak.

“Honestly, I don’t really know much about the dolls. Little Berry, who showed up today, was the second one to appear in my classroom. Aside from that, I don’t know much else beyond what information is already floating around and the fact that everyone else seems to be highly unsettled by their now-frequent appearance. Really, this kind of think is just going to make everyone paranoid. It’s not good for a person’s mental health.”

Finishing up her ramblings, Kohaku decided that it would be best to introduce herself before she tried to let the conversation continue any further. “I’m Kira Kohaku. Who are you two?”

The first to make an introduction was Nori. Apparently, he was not going to make any comments on his odd fashion choices. Well, even if it was an odd fashion choice, it was not like he was under any obligation to explain them. As much as the vibrant red of the eyemask caught her attention, Kohaku decided that it was best to let sleeping dogs lie and not to press on the subject. She would just take the opportunity to note that it was the easiest way to discern Nori from anyone else.

The second to make an introduction was twin-tailed girl, Kana. Unlike with the straightforward Nori, Kohaku was unable to get a solid read on what kind of person this Kana was. Though, this was likely due to the combination of her only saying one sentence at that point and the lack of any striking features beyond her twin tails, which contrary to popular belief did not dictate one’s personality.

After the two had given their names, the first one to speak was Nori.

"If you don't mind me asking did you name the doll Little Berry or do they come with names now?”

It was at that moment when Kohaku realized that she accidentally let the nickname she had given the doll in her classroom slip. With a sheepish grin, she scratched at her cheek with her index finger. “No, they don’t really come with names. I have kinda been giving them nicknames ever since they started to appear with more frequency. I’m a bit of a lover of elegant things so those dolls just really fell right into my alley. The one that showed up today was a blonde one with pink clothes that reminded me of a strawberry, so I just gave it that name.”

With her answer given, she heard Kana begin to press Nori. "Are you planning to investigate this Kinoshita-kun? You seem to be pressing for information, but is this just to satisfy your own curiosity, or do you have an agenda?"

With that, Kohaku could determine one thing about Kana. “Do you want to end this doll issue as well, Kinoshita-san?”

With that, Kohaku could only think about the doll that had shown up in the girls’ locker room for the second years the previous Friday. It had been less than a week, but in the increased frequency of doll appearances, none had shown up in the boy’s locker room. The lack of reciprocation must have definitely been causing some unease in the boys who would be likely blamed for such a prank. That had to be it…either that or he was concerned with his mental welfare and that of everyone else around him like she was.

Unlike Kana, who had voiced her approval to cooperate, Kohaku just nodded. There was no need to break the flow of the conversation just to voice her approval. Instead, it would be best to focus on trying to track patterns within the dolls’ appearances.

Finishing up the last bite of her lunch, she spoke up.

“Well, as far as I know, the dolls have appeared in a majority of the second years’ classrooms. The appearance is…”

As much as she would have liked to bring forth the relevant knowledge, she had to admit, that she really did not know too much about the locations of the dolls and where they popped up. She could only work on the knowledge that they happened to show up in her homeroom twice.

She tapered off with a frown. However, that frown was short-lived as she saw a familiar face passing near the table. “Hey, Kanazawa-san!” She said, giving off a very exaggerated wave.

The boy who walked up, was the slender glasses-wearing class representative of Kohaku’s class. To put it lightly, he was one who embodied one of the more elegant forms of Japanese beauty for men. His short-black hair, combined with his prevalent, yet parted bangs, his glasses, and his slender yet tall and imposing form allowed him to come off easily as an aloof intellectual as opposed to a smartass nerd.

If any of the student body, aside from the culprit, was to be able to give information about the dolls’ patterns, it would be someone who was a class representative or a member of the student council. Luckily for her, one of those people was someone she was relatively acquainted with. After all, she was the one thing standing between him and top scores on every subject. After all, none could best the medical nut when it came to anything biology or chemistry related. Truly, she was the one thing between him and the absolute summit.

“Ah, Kira-san. Do you need something?” The boy asked, shifting up his glasses, looking at his friendly competitor.

“Come on, sit down~” Kohaku gave off a hearty smile as she beckoned him over. “I wanted to ask you something.”

Reiji thought for a few seconds before finally capitulating to Kohaku’s request and taking a seat next to her. He looked around at the motley crew that she had somehow gathered around her, before taking a deep sigh. “So, what is it you want to ask?”

“Let me introduce you, first. This is Kanazawa Reiji, the class rep for my homeroom class.” She paused to let the other two process that information before continuing to speak. “So, have you guys been able to detect any trends in the locations where the dolls have been popping up?”

Reiji sighed again, before speaking up. “I had a feeling you’d be asking about that. This doll crisis is starting to get really annoying. The student council pulled an emergency meeting on Monday after the one doll in the girls’ locker room showed up last Friday. We had originally been worried that maybe the doll hid some sort of camera, but that idea broke down once the vice-president decided to smash the doll.” Reiji sighed again before grabbing at his shoulder and swinging his arm around, likely trying to stretch out some unwanted stress. “Well, the dolls have mainly been showing up in the classrooms for the second years. Though they haven’t shown up in all of the classrooms, it’s likely only a matter of time before they’re all hit. Additionally, they have shown up in two of the third year classrooms and once at the main entranceway.” After another pause, he looked up, while trying to recall some information. “Now that I think about it, our classroom wasn’t the first to get hit twice, either…”

Kanazawa found himself taken back at the first rapid-fire of questions that came from Nori. He had definitely expected questions from the others, though he was far from ready to respond to the multitude of questions asked by Nori at a high pace. The worst part was that the boy did not seem to introduce himself in the slightest. He had jumped straight into questioning.

“Is he always like this?” Kanazawa asked turning to Kohaku.

With a sheepish grin, she answered, “So it seems.”

In contrast, Kana’s questions were more like a single question split into two. It was definitely far easier to deal with.

Still, it was best to deal with the more troublesome set of questions first. Troublesome things like that had a tendency to pile up if left alone. “We really only checked two dolls for cameras. The one in the locker room was a given for that search, but to widen our sample size, we checked the doll that appeared in classroom 2-C’s homeroom. Like with the first one, there were no cameras hidden within them. We did try looking for more dolls in the girls’ locker room…well, at least the female class reps and student council members tried to, and found nothing. There’s no indication that any more dolls may be hidden in the locker room according to them.”

As he continued to speak he rested his head on his left palm while leaving his right hand on the table which he rhythmically tapped on with his index finger. “Anyway, as you can probably guess, 2-C’s homeroom is the first location where a doll appeared a second time. That was the main reason why we decided to break that doll to widen the sample size. We did not want to damage too much in case this ends up being evidence for some crime. As for the entryway doll, it’s the outlier case. None of us could really ever figure out why that doll even existed there in the first place.”

After finally answering all of Nori’s questions in the quickest way possible, Reiji turned to face Kana to answer her question. At the very least, she was far more polite, so he was definitely more comfortable talking with her.

“We ended up suspecting that the culprit may have been from 2-C, so there was a search done on the class but that was to no avail. Some of the members of the council suggested fingerprints before they came to realize that fingerprints don’t come out well on clothes, which is likely where the culprit held them by.”

In the meantime, Kohaku silently noted down anything she had heard from Reiji, making special emphasis in her mind to look into class 2-C before the lunch break ended.

“Moving back?” Reiji pondered what Nori was referring to. “Well, they do get moved back into the position where they were found after some time. Though, that’s more the fault of the class reps. Aside from preserving the scene, there’s another reason for it. The dolls never show up in more intrusive areas. During classes, they are generally just out of sight. They never intrude enough to distract people, though some do not enjoy the prospect of something they find creepy always being present behind them.”

Stopping himself to leave his rhythmic tapping as the only sound coming from that table, he frowned. “Basically, the student council sent a directive to the other class reps to move the dolls back once they notice that they are moved out of the way. I’m sure the class rep in your class was annoyed at having to move the doll back when they came in the morning before everyone else, Kinoshita-san.”

Of course, by explaining that, he had ended up nullifying one of Kana’s questions…partially, at least.

Still, it was best to answer all of Kana’s questions. “There was an insignia on each of the dolls. We found it engraved on the back of one of the dolls we had broken. The insignia was for a doll craft shop that was centered in the School Garden. Thanks to some connections to some Shidarezakura students that a couple of the class reps had, they were able to go take a look at said doll craft shop, but turned up nothing. Apparently, the shop was popular enough that it got multiple custom orders from all over the city. They did try to trace any spikes in orders, but apparently there were none of those either. It was a trail that had gone cold.”

In other words, trying to trace the culprit by matching appearance rates with order spikes was a fools’ errand. In all likelihood, the culprit had been ordering these dolls in advance. They were likely well aware that placing the dolls was going to be a long-term affair. Considering that custom orders came from all over the city, it was likely that these orders were being mailed out, meaning it was impossible to even eliminate the possibility of the culprit being a boy.

“As for your second question, Tsukomata-san, the basis of that question is wrong, but you do bring up an excellent point. Even if the criminal does not return to the scene of the crime to move the dolls back, they could still be caught when placing a new doll. Of course, capturing them on camera was a possibility, so we tried that. However, security cameras and the cameras we placed were all missing data. In other words, the culprit had deleted any footage. As for ambushing them in person…well, unfortunately, the class reps and the student council still have a reputation to uphold. There is quite an ‘ends do not justify the means’ mentality among us. Though, we still have to keep in mind that the culprit was somehow able to evade security.”

After finishing up his answer, he took a quick look at his watch. “Ah. I’m late!” Reiji stood up from his seat immediately. “I’m sorry, but I promised to meet someone a few minutes ago, so I have to go. If you guys have any more questions for me, just ask Kira-san for my contact.” He said, before running off.

Kohaku, having finished jotting down whatever Reiji had mentioned, looked at her notes for a few seconds before closing her note application on her phone and looking towards Kana and Nori.

They had gotten their hands on all of the student council’s information on the case which meant that they were on their own from this point forward. The big question at this point was “What next?”

“In that case, let’s stick together and head to the first location Kinoshita-san suggested.” Seeing as the other two had come to a consensus about what to do first. She, personally, would have rather checked the other classroom first, but since Nori had suggested the entranceway, it might as well have been best to go there.

“Let’s avoid splitting up, however.” Kohaku said, while placing the now empty bowl of mapo doofu back onto her tray and her smartphone back into her skirt pocket. “It would be easier for us to notice anything off with three pairs of eyes looking into the same thing. If we’re lucky, we probably will have enough time to look into at least two of the locations, so let’s hurry.”

After placing her tray on a nearby cart meant for students to dispose of any dishes from meals the bought from the cafeteria, she returned to the table where the other two were. “So, are we ready to go to the entrance?”

While most people would never deign to call the large space an entranceway, those who came into that school on a daily basis had long since been acclimated to calling that space by that name. There was a single reason for that. Despite its size, it was undoubtably the single pathway for the students to enter the building. There were no divergences or branches and no extra rooms. All there was was a single start point and single endpoint. Unless one decided to walk in circles, there was no way for on to not go to either point.

The absurdly sized entranceway consisted of two parts. The first was a gaudy reception-security area. Kept pristine, it held three specific stations: a security desk at the very front, next to the glass-door entrance, a reception/help desk area on one side, and a cafe area on the other (for the tea drinkers and occasional coffee addict). This portion seemed to branch out of the building as a small, one story rectangular prism jutting out of he great structure that Nagatenjouki Academy was.

At the back of the reception area was the set of doors that led into the main school building. Beyond it was the one thing that most students in Academy City found to be commonplace: shoe lockers—or at least that’s what it would have been for most other schools. Since Nagatenjouki included loafers in their school uniforms, it was pointless for them to create a shoe locker area. Instead, it was simply an open space that could act as a gathering space for students, with walls covered in multiple bulletin boards and with tables hugging the walls. It was at a table at the closest to the main hallway for the school that the doll in question was placed.

The doll wore a blue caplet over a white shirt, blue pants, and short black boots. If one were to paint a picture of what motif the doll was most connected to, they would definitely think of Lapis Lazuli. There were three focal points on the doll that drew attention. The first was the heterochromatic left red and right green eyes. The second was its strangely masculine appearance—that is to say, while it was still obviously female, the doll did come off as more masculine due to its outfit and short chestnut-colored hair. The last thing of note was the most striking—a pair of gold gardening shears it held in its right hand. It was definitely blunt and far from a cause for harm, but it was unsettling nonetheless. After all, it looked like a large pair of scissors and the teenage mind could be quite colorful with its imagination.

Despite its simple elegance, its presence as the cold porcelain eyes took in everything they saw was a source of discomfort.

It was a miracle that none of the students lashed out at the unsettling object that continued to sit in the location that it was placed.

But, thanks to that unsettling object, what was normally a gathering place for students was devoid of people when they did not need to be there. In other words, lunchtime left this place empty.

Kohaku simply stared at the doll. It was a fine piece of artisanship, but she could honestly tell nothing else by looking at it. Besides the fact that it was posed to look into the hallway, there was nothing she could say was of note.

“So, what angle do you guys want to try investigating it through?” She said, turning to ask Kana and Nori.

Kana was probably right that the student council’s investigation had probably cleared the location of any evidence. Still, it would not hurt to look.

"Well we already know we aren't going to find fingerprints on the doll and student council has already investigate the insignia found on the dolls so we aren't going to learn anything new by looking into either of those. The shears, the eye colors, and the doll's placement are what is catching my attention right now though honestly I want to see if there is anything inside.

"If you want to look inside of it, I would not stop you. I think it's a good idea. The only problem would be upsetting the council." 

“Well, if you really want to take it apart, just make sure you can put it back together again. I’m not sure how doll-crafting is done, but I’m pretty sure removal of parts is not as easy as pressing a button to release some kind of lock.” She warned Nori who seemed to be itching to take the thing apart. “Even if there is some method of replacing damaged parts, I’m not sure what it would be.”

Beyond what Reiji mentioned the Student Council wanted, there was another benefit to leaving the dolls intact on their original places. The creation of a sense of security. Regardless of what purpose the dolls served, it was likely that the culprit would return to the scenes of where they left the dolls at some point. If that was the case, a damaged doll could give the culprit reason to not return to it. It was a long shot, but the idea of the criminal returning to the scene of the crime was a possibility that should not be squandered.

"Kira-san, is there any chance that you would happen to know where most or even all dolls are located? It seems like a stretch, but I was curious if there might happen to be a pattern to their placement if looked upon from a map of the school."

“There might be.” Kohaku moved over to the nearby map next to the bulletin board before pointing out each of the location the dolls had been placed in.

“The positions of the dolls are not that convoluted. Each of the homerooms for the second year classrooms were hit. These usually ended up in not to inconspicuous locations like the back of the classroom or inside a bookshelf.” She said, pointing to the respective areas in each classroom. “Classrooms 2-A and 2-C were hit twice. Aside from that, the dolls appeared in the second years’ Physics lab relegated specifically for 2-C’s and 2-A’s use, the Home Ec classroom, here, the second years’ girls’ locker room, and in classrooms 3-E and 3-D.”

There was no strange pattern to be drawn by connecting the dots of the appearances on the map. “Come to think of it, most of the dolls were centered around areas connected to 2-A and 2-C. Though, the extra dolls in those third year classrooms still don’t add up.”