Mission 1: The Mystery of Miss Yuki (part 1)
Otomo Rina rose and followed close behind the twins, figuring that was probably the safest place to be at the moment, but said nothing. Zenzen, however, was still quite talkative. "It would indeed" Zenzen replied as he led the way, "if that were the miscreants intention."
"Sakura-Chan, why don't you give your report to Otomo-Dono and Otomo Hoshi-San? The same ones you gave Sensei, but as if no one had heard it before."
Seppun Sakura turned a light shade of crimson before complying. "The first time I saw something unusual was my chopsticks at dinner, almost a year ago. The others were standard wood and identical, however mine appeared to be made of a fancy wood I'd never seen before -- the wood was black and well polished, appearing to be Mantis in origin. I later discovered they were made of Ebony. I asked the others near me if they noticed anything different, but they said they did not. Shortly after that, the chopsticks began to dance and then disappeared. My real chopsticks were actually under my plate."
"The second time, I thought I saw Yokuken-Sensei -- my first sensei -- walking the halls. He has been dead for several years, so I called out to him. He winked at me and then told me I was doing a good job and to keep it up ... and then vanished."
She hesitated and looked to Zenzen for permission before continuing.
"The third time, I found a very old sword. It was well taken care of, but the style was different. I took it to Seppun Kenichi-Sensei and he took it from me. Asked me many questions ... where it came from and such -- but I had no answers. I found it in my room. Much later, while perusing the library I discovered that it was of a pre-Kami design."
"The sword kept showing up in my room, and each time I took it to Kenichi-Sensei. He was progressively more irritated, eventually telling me that I needed to stop taking it from the hidden chamber."
"Then, right before the Kirin showed up, I saw a large ... creature roaming the halls. It was two or three times the size of a human, had the body of a snake and the torso, head and arms of a human. It told me that the Kirin were coming and we should be prepared, and then vanished. I told Sensei, but but he told me I shouldn't make up such stories."
"And then -- just now -- there was the floating, talking scroll. But you saw that."