Saihara's POV:

Careful not to disturb the image being created on the wall I struggled to try and take out my phone to photograph it when I saw Kiibo waving his phone.

"Don't worry I got it" he told me knowingly, Ouma seemed confused as to what was going on.

'Everyone's been quiet now and some little gasps, what happened?' He asked, "I found a light projection, I'll tell you more about it when I get back alright?" I promised.

'Back? Back from where? Are you ditching?' Ouma asked, he even looked a bit intrigued at the idea.

"No...maybe...I don't know yet?" I answered honestly. Ouma seemed satisfied with the answer, or lack of one.

'If you do something crazy Kiibo's going to bust over and save you with rocket launchers' he promised, "wait why did you sign my name? What?" Kiibo asked confused.

Ouma just smirked, as if a silent secret passed between us, I wonder if that's what it felt like back then between DICE.

"I won't, but thanks" I told him as Kiibo kept looking at Ouma confused, "no really why? Please?" He asked as I descened down the stairs and out the door, looking over the sent picture in my messages.

~-~-~-~

It was hard to know the place I was meant to go, so I decided to be safe and print out a map of the local area, laying the image flat against the thin paper.

Glancing my phone for reference I realized the dotted map would only likely show up well if I used a light board and projected it onto it.

I didn't have anything like that, so instead I paper clipped the two pieces of paper into place and used my phone flashlight to light up the map again.

This time though with a red sharpie I circled the dots, and found it led to the nearby forest a perhaps forty to an hour walk from the school.

I recalled the people in the diary, I knew Chiasa couldn't draw and Kiibo had never mentioned Otome drawing or having an art hobby, along with Sanyu apparently favoring a different medium. So if Masako did draw this I had to wonder why?

What could have been so important she went to this length to hide it, and if it was...what kind of secret will I uncover?

The same anxiety I had felt from when I first found the diary swarmed inside of me again, I didn't know what I was getting into.

But...Ouma's smile and assurance convinced me to move forward into the forest as I prayed my battery would hold out.

I guess I was ditching.

~-~-~

I thought it would be just one location and that would be the end, turns out not even close.

Instead the map lead me to the forest area and I found nothing to really indicate what I was supposed to be looking for, it dawned on me that whatever I was looking for might not even exist anymore.

However just when I was about to give up a large tree stood out to me, carved into it long ago was an MM.

Curiosity took the better of me as I hesitantly climbed the tree to find a small metal box, there was only a padlock, and even some scratched marks on the box either from the weather or maybe another person who tried to force open the box.

I glanced at the padlock, I didn't get any sort of ideas for the password from the image earlier, but then I opened the diary with a new idea.

The day the drawing was marked as was in the next pages corner, as I tried that date the lock opened.

This time a different drawing, it was a cat, and on a seperate sheet which once belonged to a fortune cookie was another combination of numbers.

Masako...whoever you were you really knew how to hide things huh?

A mystery within a mystery, still I switched out the old drawing for the new and grabbed a new pen, I would take the challenge.

But...as I marked down my thoughts I paused at the tree and glanced at the owl drawing.

Lowering my bag I grabbed my own piece of paper and began to draw a crude checkered pattern and placed it in the old metal box and placed it inside.

Thank you.

~-~-~-~

After six rounds of maps hunting the sun threatened to pass the horizon as I begged for just one single extra hour of sunlight.

Luck seemed to be in my favor because what I approached next was a small tree house made for a child.

I was scared of climbing the old and worn down rope ladder but at the top I found a small clubhouse.

There was large pile of notebooks, which I flipped through carefully to find sketchbooks, each labeled as a volume with a total of thiry one.

Each page had a small progression that lead up to what became the owl drawings, the sketches mostly consisted of night skies, small animals, but most of all pictures and drawings that depicted the DICE group.

However some images also were a bit more disturbing, showing a family of three but every time it seems the artist tried to draw this family they kept scratching out the faces, some of the pages of the sketchbook compared to the otherwise pristine condition had been roughly torn out which made me think it had been the victim of a few tug of war sessions.

There also was a few notes at the bottom of the drawings in a cursive handwriting, most of them asked the person if this is really worth their time or at worst insulting the art.

It made me concerned, maybe that doesn't make sense, but I couldn't tell if that handwriting belonged to Masako or someone else.

The only thing keeping me from spending the rest of my time with these sketchbooks was to keep myself from accidentally smudging the worn pages.

Still, I glanced back and looked for another metal box, but there wasn't any in site. I sat against a bean bag chair confused before...

I opened the ziplock and sure enough it was inside, another padlock guessing game later I opened it to find a letter in a crisp envelop.

Dear Stranger,

Hey self and if it isn't me hello random person, get the fuck out of my treehouse you little snake.

Unless you're a fan of stars, then you can stay.

Strange things have been happening lately, I'm kind of scared to even put this to paper.

But someone's after me, someone's after my friends and I think I know why but even worse might know who.

I'm not a good person, I'm not a good daughter, not a good student, not even that great of a member of society.

But do I really deserve to be hurt? Am I just that forgettable that no one would mind it if I died?

Because my friend Genkei was, he had his whole face slashed into with a knife.

And even if Ko says otherwise I want to figure this out, because if someone is going to purposefully seek us out once to hurt us I doubt it will be the last time.

I'm scared Riko is next, even Nao the little annoying twit doesn't deserve that.

So theory time, I think it's my sub.

Just writing that makes me second guess but it's the only conclusion I can come to.

That guy's whole attitude and personality is so off to me, it comes off as fake and forced and it creeps me out to no end.

He's also probably one of the only people who could have known, as we...not a good person remember? Vanadlized the store the same day we planned it, and we planned it at school.

It wasn't a kid because the person was to tall, probably not a lady cause even in the dark the figure looked to masculine, all the other male teachers are to old for that kind of shit so sub.

He also gave that weird point system, which now that I think of it might be dumb, so basically we have points that determine us a villain or hero blah blah, point is the punishment for obtaining villain is unknown.

I thought that meant he thought no one would ever get there, but what if I'm wrong? What if it's really bad and what happened to Genkei was a warning?

Only reason I haven't gone to the cops yet stranger is because I am a criminal, and if that manager finds out we were the ones who did that not only will my friends serve juvy but Riko's parents who are unlucky enough to work for that evil disgusting pig so he would probably fire them. That's not worth it, Riko has way to many siblings so if her parents lost their income it would be game over for them.

I can't do that to her.

That's funny to me though, the fact I care that much. Because if I'm a villain for destroying a mans buisness, that same man who hurt Riko like that. If I'm a demon like my parents say for wanting to be more than just a cog in an endless corporate machine, if I'm just that awful of a person because I will blame the people who created the awful world I live in, the ones who gave rise to the corruption, destroyed the earth, and made all us young people seem like fools...

Then what are they?

So I'm just going to try and find this out now and who knows, maybe I'm overreacting about the sub and maybe this was a one time thing.

But if a stranger is reading this, then it probably wasn't huh? Tell Riko I'm sorry if she got hurt or if I'm hurt now.

And make sure my sketchbooks don't go to my parents, please.

See you next time hopefully self,

Miri

I felt instant pity for Masako, but at the same time this notebook...

...I opened my backpack and packed into it all the sketchbooks. I didn't know what I would do with them, I just couldn't let them be forgotten to time.

She wouldn't be forgotten.