image [https://i.imgur.com/O2Ce9Ev.jpg]

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The girl next to her best friend starts waving her hand. A few increasingly violent shakes later, the other starts to sulk and frowns at her.

- What's happening?!" asks Deshya, annoyed by Amora's shaking.

Her long pink-haired best friend puffs out her cheeks as she stares violently at Deshya.

- Why won't you answer me?!" she asks.

- Sorry, sorry…

- Did you sleep badly? Is it because of what happened on the train...?

Seeing Amora's worried expression, Deshya starts waving her hands around in a much straighter posture, stopping to place both elbows on her desk.

- No, it's not that!! It's just that I was harassed again this morning... Luckily, Tessa stole all the attention so I wouldn't be bothered too much... I owe her one.

Deshya smiled, thinking of Tessa. She's the one who managed to save Trisha, the one who would have been Mista's third victim, the culprit, and she's the one who first understood the way he was killing people on that train. Although Deshya likes to be praised, she feels she doesn't deserve any for what happened there. What's more, given that she went to bed later than planned, her father having forced her to stay at the police station for a long time to tell everything, she prefers not to be bothered too much today. Amora smiles, realizing that Deshya isn't grumbling at her, and claps her hands together.

- I've got an idea!" she says.

Deshya turns her gaze to her, moving her head slightly, and questions her with her blue eyes.

- Why don't the two of us go after class to a tea room I know well?" suggests Amora.

- A tea room...?

She nods.

- It opened during the summer vacations and is only about 40 minutes from the school! If you take the bus back, it should take about 40 minutes for the return journey too!

Deshya doesn't answer at the moment, observing Amora with a fairly neutral expression. She looks at the class in front of her, the teacher not yet having arrived.

- It's Friday, can't we treat ourselves?" asks Amora with a cheerful smile.

The last day of classes of this first week at school. Deshya scratches her bangs in thought, but Amora insists again.

- Please! I know you like tea, and they make great tea over there!

Deshya sighs and rests both elbows on her desk again. She closes her eyes and chews something non-existent before nodding with a small smile, now looking at Amora.

- I'm sure it will do me good, so of course," replies Deshya.

- Hooorayyyy!!

Amora jumps out of her chair to hug Deshya, attracting everyone's attention. At the same time, the math teacher comes into the classroom and notices the girl hugging the other. He puts his hands on his hips and crinkles his eyes in surprise, puffing out one cheek.

- Miss Amora...?" he blurts out.

The girl with the long pink hair opens her eyes and looks at the teacher, smiling.

- What is it?

He approaches them and observes for a few moments before tilting his head to the right.

- ...classes are about to start. Can you…

Amora lets go of her best friend and nods, her hair moving in all directions.

- Forgive me, I wanted to do this too much!

- A-Ah, right... right.

The professor prefers not to bother with this and heads for the board, leaving a smiling, energy-filled Amora and a sighing Deshya behind.

- I'm going to die before this day is over..." thinks Deshya, looking ahead with tired eyes.

CHAPTER 13

⎾Tranquility of a Bus Trip⏌

- Here it is!

Amora raises her arms and points to the beautiful building, which looks as if it came out of the 1950s, smiling. Deshya has her hands in the large pockets of her sweater and observes the building carefully. The wood used is quite old, but yet looks new. The windows, the front door and even the signs all look as if they've come from the past, but there's a slightly modern air about this tea room. A bell is installed above the front door, designed to be rung when opened. Deshya stretches her arms and Amora tells her to follow with a sunny expression. It's clear that she's very happy to be able to come here with her best friend. Deshya hasn't heard anyone mention this tea room, yet given its slightly old-fashioned style, it should have been rather popular. Looking through the lounge's large windows, she notes with sadness that there doesn't seem to be many people around. Classes ended about an hour ago for them, so this should be about the most crowded time... Amora grabs her hand and pushes the door open, Deshya forced to follow. The girl with the long pink hair raises her free hand in the air and greets the lady behind the wooden counter.

- Oh, Amora!

- Hello, Miss Ikura!

The woman turns to Amora, but notices that someone is accompanying her. She goes to ask who this person happens to be, but on seeing her attire, the woman simply smiles.

- Is this Deshya, your best friend?" she asks.

Amora lets go of Deshya's hand and nods with a smile to rival the sun. She hugs her best friend, rubbing her cheek against hers.

- That's her, she agreed to come with me today!

- Hello.

Deshya bows her head gently and politely in front of the woman. The woman smiles and tells them they can have any table they like. Amora thanks her and grabs Deshya's hand again before running off.

- Which table do we take?" asks Amora.

- The one you like..." replies Deshya.

- This one!

Deshya has barely finished her sentence when Amora chooses a table and sits down on one of the chairs, smiling. Deshya takes a seat on the one opposite and admires the large room they're in. Only a fairly young couple and a relatively young girl accompanied by her two parents — or grandparents — are present in the tea room. The ceiling is made of wood and the lamp is in an antique style. Furniture with fairly clean glass jars is close to the two friends, as is a table with several miscellaneous objects, just in front of the living-room windows. On the glass jars are papers inscribed with the names of the scents inside them. Beautiful paintings are also visible on the walls of the room, some of cats set up like war generals and others that are expressionist in origin. Deshya recognizes one painting: 'Street scene in Berlin'. It's a painting her father is very fond of, after all... Amora rests both elbows on the table in front of her and her head in her hands.

- Do you know what kind of tea you're going to have?" she asks.

- Hmmm, let me see the menu…

She grabs the card waiting for her in front of her, standing in a crack made on purpose inside a wooden rectangle. Amora tells her she can have her tea, since she already knows what she's having. Deshya takes a few moments to look at the different teas and after a moment's thought, she puts the card back where it was and raises her hand to call the lady. She nods and comes over to take their order.

- White tea for me," said Deshya.

Amora turns her gaze towards the woman without moving her head and smiles.

- Chamomile tea, please!

- All right!

The woman returns their smile and nods again. She walks away from the two best friends with their order in mind and Amora starts talking to Deshya about the tea room.

- Thanks again!

Amora shakes her hand to say goodbye to Deshya and starts running down the street before disappearing at a crossroads. Deshya smiles and rests her back against the bus stop billboard, hands in her pockets. She grabs her phone and turns it on, looking at the time.

- My bus arrives in just three minutes," she remarks.

Deshya puts her phone away and waits patiently. The tea room Amora has introduced her to has been a real pleasure and their tea is a real delight. Even though Deshya had a bit to keep up with all the stories of her energetic bestie, she enjoyed knowing a little more about the history of this place, as well as the reason why Ikura and her husband decided to build this teahouse. It would date back to their childhood, when they still had naïve, childish dreams... Ikura is said to have promised that she would build a teahouse when she married him, and that she would pay homage to the abandoned house where they often played together. The story is long and moving, but Deshya enjoyed every bit of it. From now on, the weekend awaits and all Deshya can hope for is to go home, eat a nice supper and cuddle her giant fox stuffed animal that she won for the riddle she solved on the first day of school. Even though school has j u s t started again and Deshya doesn't hate it, she's happy that the weekend is already here for her. Solving a murder on the first day of school and having to find the identity of a culprit just two days later has been exhausting for her. She feels she deserves a relaxing weekend where she can simply play without thinking about anything, chat with her friends and watch the live stream of 'Waffie'*, a Vtuber she adores.

(*: ‘Waffie’ is based on a real friend of the author, ‘JaWaffle’. Check them out!)

- She's going to stream the next installment of Alien Survivor, too!

Deshya already played it during the vacations and loved it: for her, it's the best 'Alien Survivor' ever. Waffie had to finish another game before she could play it, so she's getting on with it a bit later, but they're all going to enjoy it. Her fans know full well that she's always playing new games late, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's worth noting that this Vtuber isn't the most popular in her field, but she has a community that follows her closely and enjoyed some success when part of her stream had around ten million views on YouTube.

Vtubers are people who use a certain software program — although there are several — to create a 3D avatar that moves according to their own movements. Using a camera that tracks their movements, often only their upper body and head, and after creating a model and modifying it so that it can be tracked and have certain emotions, the Vtuber can use it as a model and pretend it looks like this in real life. Models are often Japanese anime or manga characters, but this depends on the user's tastes and colors. Deshya isn't totally into them, and she's not too fond of their communities, but Waffie has managed to capture her heart thanks to her good humor and the way she plays and reacts to the different games. What's more, she's close to her community and talks a lot on social networks. In short, she's a Vtuber Deshya loves to watch, as well as someone who makes her laugh, amuses her and sometimes lulls her to sleep. How many times has she fallen asleep in front of one of her live shows...?

Just as she's thinking about what to do tonight, her bus pulls up in front of the stop. The front doors open to let them in, while the back doors open to allow some of them to get out. Deshya boards the bus after a man and a young boy, the only three waiting at this stop. She passes her card in front of the screen and a sound is heard, a green 'V' indicating her agreement. Deshya nods to the driver before sitting down in one of the bus's many empty seats. She looks at her phone again to make sure she hasn't had any messages, but apart from a "Have a good trip!" from Amora, nothing. It's 6.21pm and the sun is slowly beginning to set on the horizon, still showing its rays for a few minutes. Deshya turns around and looks at the accordion bus for a few seconds, but notices that not many people are there. Without further ado, the vehicle starts up and Deshya looks out of the window. Unlike the train she took yesterday, the landscape passes by quite slowly. This doesn't necessarily mean that the bus is slow, rather that it can't match the speed of a train. She stretches when a little girl starts running down the long corridor of the bus. Deshya looks at her and blinks, tilting her head to the right to see where she's going. The fox-tailed teenager notices the little girl turn on her heels, in front of where the driver is, and raises both hands.

- Can I have it, please?" the little girl asks in a cute voice.

The driver smiles at her and looks for something before passing it to her. The little girl thanks her, but before leaving, the driver tells her to wait and she stops, turning around.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

- Take this pencil too!" said the driver. How else are you going to write?

- Ooooh!

The little girl nods and runs up to the driver again before grabbing him with her bare hand and thanking him. She then runs off into the bus, probably to join her parents. Deshya continues to watch her with a surprised expression.

- Her hair is... beautiful.

She's small, both in size and age, and yet she has hair…

All white.

It obviously suits her, but Deshya can't help but be amazed. Bleached hair at such a young age? All white, yet silky, swaying to the rhythm of her footsteps and reaching to the middle of her back. Deshya doesn't know exactly how old she is, but she's sure she can't be 10 yet. Is it a good idea to bleach the hair of such a young girl? Deshya prefers to shrug her shoulders and simply say to herself that they're beautiful: she's not her mother and has no reason to judge her choices or those of her parents, so why bother? Deshya still thought you had to be a certain age to be able to color or bleach your hair, so it intrigues her, but no one seems to be surprised on the bus... She turns and gives a somewhat silly smile, lowering her eyelids.

- It has to be said that there's hardly anyone around and they're all concentrating on something else..." she thinks.

For example, a woman with long blond hair who is standing very close to where the little girl has just stopped, but has her nose in her book. She's holding it up with her dark gloves, which surprises Deshya: it's quite warm at the moment. Summer hasn't even started yet... Deshya can't see herself wearing gloves in weather like this, but she shrugs again: is it any of her business? She knows it's not. So she stares out the bus window, thinking of her own life instead of those of others.

- …

What she's looking at isn't actually the landscape that's just stopped moving because the bus is at a bus stop, but her own reflection. What she's staring at... is her physique. It's not because she's self-centered and thinks she's beautiful, or the other way around and thinks she's horrible, but because of what's hidden under her hood: her fox ears. Her animal attributes she doesn't understand. It's been just under three years since she disappeared without a trace, and yet she still has no idea what happened. She has searched long and hard on the internet for clues. Maybe cases like hers. People talking about it on unfrequented sites. Something that happened during the 5 months when she disappeared. However, apart from the death of a corrupt politician, robberies and murders of popular groups and an attack in southern Firuede, nothing special had happened. Nothing that could explain WHY she had been released. Deshya has no idea what she's doing here. Of course, she's happy to be free, alive and well, but why is she? Now that she's a girl with fox ears and a fox tail, she should be a biologically extraordinary person and someone we'd like to keep around for further experimentation or analysis. Deshya thought it possible that she'd been tested extensively and that they didn't need her anymore, but why release her, then? Why not keep her under wraps to prevent her from opening her mouth too much or confessing to others who she is? If one day she comes out and admits to the media that she's a fox girl and manages to prove it, the world will only talk about it. The truth will be bathed in light and sooner or later, the person, group or thing that transformed her in this way will be discovered one way or another. Of course, this doesn't benefit Deshya because she'll be harassed every day, but if she wants to make the person or people who kidnapped her regret it, then…

- I don't understand…

She continues to stare at her own reflection, frustrated. She can't see what she's doing out there. Whoever kidnapped her managed to give her fox-like attributes in the space of 5 months, so if they can now create other humans like her, why hasn't anything happened since then? It's been three years since she was kidnapped! If she had somehow managed to escape, then why hasn't she been caught again? If we can keep her captive for 5 months without a trace, we'll have no trouble getting her back unseen, especially as Deshya isn't afraid to walk home from school alone…

So why...?

- Waaa!

Deshya is deep in thought, increasingly frustrated, when the little girl's voice rings out. Deshya lifts her body a little and turns her head to see the little girl with long white hair in the lap of a rather elderly man. Is he her father or grandfather...? At her side is an old woman holding a pencil, probably the one given to them by the driver. She seems to be writing in the journal she borrowed from the driver. Deshya smiles.

- They have to do crossword puzzles," she thinks.

The man beckons the little girl to be quiet and she quickly places both hands in front of her mouth, before closing her eyes and smiling. Deshya finds this cute and rests both her buttocks on the seat before looking at the glass again, but this time it's the landscape she's observing. She doesn't necessarily like to stay on her phone when she's on the bus, and in any case, she'll write to Amora when she gets off the bus. She doesn't need to bother answering other people's questions so quickly. She can rest, and luckily there's not much noise on this bus... She wouldn't dare fall asleep on a bus, even on a short journey, but at least she can enjoy the silence without thinking about much. It's the weekend and her bed awaits her impatiently. Even if she's being a bit cheeky, the murders she's witnessed over the last few days are no picnic at all. It's already been a very... complicated vacation.

- I don't want to remember any of this…

She sighs as she looks through the car window.

- Ever since that night, Dad's been checking up on me. He even wanted me to see a psychologist. Tsk.

She understands his concern and Deshya didn't sleep well for the next few days, but how many times did she have to tell her father that she wasn't traumatized...? She doesn't even want to think about it.

The bus continues on its way, stopping several times, the hands of the clocks go forward and it's 6.48pm. The bus stops and two men get out, while another gets in, hands in pockets. Deshya puts her phone away and looks outside: only three more stops and she's a few steps from home. Deshya wonders what she'll eat tonight... She's hoping for chicken!

- Thank you.

The man who has just boarded the bus bows to the driver after giving change to make the journey in the vehicle and walks slowly down the corridor, holding on to some bars. He doesn't look very fit, but that's probably age. Deshya figures he's not as old as the man and woman with the white-haired girl. The old man keeps walking and the bus starts off. He holds on to a bar and threatens to fall, but the woman who was previously reading his book holds him back with both hands, letting his book fall to the ground. Deshya was ready to go and help the old man, but it looks like she won't have to do such a thing... Deshya smiles: this woman's reflexes must be pretty sharp, considering how quickly she caught him. The man thanks her and continues on his way when—

- Oh, Ginner!

A male voice rings out, but one that makes no secret of its human's age. The elderly man who has just entered the bus turns to him and smiles.

- Oh, it's you, Roger.

He stands at the bar that runs from the chair to the roof of the bus and starts chatting with his friend. The little girl on Roger's lap stares at them silently, not remembering having seen this man before. The woman next to him stops writing in the newspaper and greets Ginner in turn, and the three of them chat together. Deshya can hear them from here, thanks to the quiet of the bus and her slightly better developed hearing, but she prefers not to meddle in matters that are none of her business: in short, she doesn't listen to their conversation. She observes the few children playing outside, but the bus takes a new street and she can unfortunately no longer see them. She sighs: it reminds her so much of the time when she was barely 10... She's still very young, yet she feels like calling it her childhood... Deshya turns around out of curiosity and notices that the man has already moved away to sit a little further on, beyond the center of the bus. This is where the 'accordions' are, and Deshya used to think it was great fun to go there when she was younger. Now it's a pleasure lost with age. An amusement that exists only in the past for her. As she goes to look in front of her, she notices that the woman standing next to the couple and the little girl stands up. She chats briefly with them and grabs something. She thanks them and starts walking on the bus before passing Deshya, but continues on to the driver.

- Thank you.

Orianne bows to him and turns to go back to her seat, but Deshya calls out to her.

- What is it?" asks the woman with a friendly smile.

- I was just wondering what you gave him back..." asks Deshya, embarrassed.

- Oh, this? Hihi, I just gave him back his paper and pencil, since he asked me to.

After answering, the woman continued on her way and Deshya watched her return to her seat with a surprised expression.

- He asked her...? But when...?

She didn't hear the driver shouting for them... Besides, why didn't the little girl return them herself? Deshya shrugged and looked at her phone. Amora has sent her three messages, one of them a picture. She doesn't open them now, since she's almost there, but she should have suspected that her best friend would talk to her right away... Deshya is always amused by her energy and eagerness to chat at any moment... A real sweetheart. Deshya notices another notification and expands it by pressing on her phone before starting to read.

Minos Kiyon, the best detective in Belium, has managed to uncover the hideout of the three jewel thieves who have stolen more than six small jewelry stores in two weeks!

Deshya doesn't hide her joy while showing her teeth to her phone. She continues to read.

Although the thieves have not yet been found, Minos Kiyon is on the case alongside the country's police force. Some of the stolen loot has already been recovered, but more than half is still with the thieves.

Deshya has heard about it on the news and even her father is talking about it. Although it doesn't necessarily concern the police in Tetazo, but rather in the north of the country, it's a case worth discussing. The thieves are only stealing small jewelry stores and don't seem to want to stop, so Minos has decided to take care of it himself. Deshya is so happy to know that the case is moving forward! She turns off her phone screen and tells herself that after answering Amora, she'll read this article before eating. Deshya can't wait!

- A-AaaaAAAAAAAH!!!!

Deshya opens her eyes wide and the driver turns his head. The woman next to the couple does the same, and the man sitting behind them clicks his tongue.

- Don't shout like that!" he yells, rising from his seat.

Deshya jumps out of his and runs towards the source of the scream.

- AaaaaAaaAAAAAhh. Aa…

- ?!!!

Deshya suddenly stops, as does the bus, which brakes violently as it comes to a halt. Deshya grabs the bus bar and looks at the couple. There—

- What's going on? Daddy? Mommy? Mommy?

Deshya opens her eyes even wider. On the man's lap, the little girl touches his torso with her index finger, cute gloves on her hands. She looks innocent and yet—

- Daddy? Daddy? You don’t answer anymo’e?

— she's crying.

The woman named Orianne stands up and begins to shake. The driver hurries out of his cab and the man behind the couple sits down again, breathing hard. Some people at the back of the bus run to see what's going on, but—

- STAY AWAY!!!

They stop suddenly and the driver himself freezes in place. Deshya clenches both fists and stares angrily at the couple in front of her, while the little girl slowly turns her face towards the teenager.

- Say...?

- …

- My parents…

The little girl with the long white hair. So beautiful, such sweet, childlike eyes, marred by hot tears running down her cheeks. She opens her mouth, while a woman screams at the look on the faces of the little girl's parents. The driver approaches and takes a step back, while Deshya continues to grit her teeth, watching the whole thing with rage. The little girl's white hair, pure as snow, sways gently as she tilts her head and finally shows an expression... truly sad.

- My parents... They're dead, aren't they?