It has been a week since Carie was taken into the care of Raphael's team. During that time, the Sigil heads have become quiet when it comes to their hunt for Jian, their attention seemingly elsewhere when it comes to the Investigation Team.

During this relative calm, the remaining team has been gathering information to find the leader of the Sigil heads. Boz and Lera were sent to investigate the student populace for any leads, while Sin has been searching through the school faculty for the same reason.

Jian is sitting at his desk in his homeroom at the beginning of the school day, waiting to hear back from anyone in his group. A minute later and he sees Boz step into the classroom. “Good, I was wondering when he would show up....” Jian thinks to himself as he waves Boz over.

“Sup, dude. Lera stopped to talk to a friend while I was on the way, so it's just me for now.” Boz states as he takes a seat next to Jian.

“Don't worry about it. Who was it anyway? Anyone I should worry about?” Jian asks.

“Carie's friend from last month. I think she said her name is Oni? I heard she was the principal's daughter, think it's anything we should worry about? She could get suspicious....” Boz says back, now a little concerned himself.

“Nah, I doubt she has anything to do with this. From what I remember from last month, she just wanted us to be academic, so I don't think she's suspicious, especially considering the conversation's tone back then. Anyway, ya get any leads?” Jian asks, trying to get back to the investigation.

“A couple. There are some students at the school that a lot of people talk about, but nearly nobody is actually friends with, especially everyone in our group.” Boz states, then holding up his hand and counting down his suspicions with each of three fingers.

“One. There's this student that got into Unimori by some pretty mysterious ways. His name is Hoshi Yashigori, and he's apparently pretty poor. You and me both understand how expensive it is to get into this school, so getting in without a scholarship and also being downtrodden is damn near impossible. That's real damn suspicious in itself.”

“Two. That Hoshi dude has a single friend at Unimori, and he's just as poor. His name is Naoto, but he doesn't talk to anyone else other than Hoshi. It's possible they could be collaborators. It's way too damn suspicious for both of them to get in without a scholarship.”

“And three. There's this really smart third year named Kinshi Harishi. I heard that he won the science fair last year, but nobody talks to him or even sees him. The only friend that he has, apparently, is that Oni girl. He's been seen talking to her a couple of times throughout the last semester. Beats me the reason why, maybe long-off relatives?”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Wait, the last guy you mentioned. Kinshi. It could be possible that Oni is connected to this if he is the mastermind. It would be a good idea to be careful around her for the time being, just in case.” Jian states.

Boz sits back in his seat, thinking that over for a moment. “Aw hell, ya might be right. I need to go check on Lera, just to make sure.”

As Boz is preparing to leave his seat, Lera walks into the room. She has a small book in her hands, along with her schoolbag slung over her back. Seeing her enter, Boz returns himself to his seat, content that Lera is safe.

Lera sits down next to Boz, saying “Hey, I'm back.” She holds the book up in front of her and then continues “Turns out that Oni wanted to discuss my grades, and wanted to ask about Carie. She offered me this book on mathematics to help me with my courses, but I'm more concerned with why she's worried about Carie.”

“It's probably because she's her friend. Although....” Jian says, before turning his gaze towards Boz.

Looking in between the two of them, Lera notices the concern “You don't think....”

Without looking at Lera, Jian says “Maybe, but it's only a hunch. The Sigil heads can take over anyone, right? So who could say they can't do it subtly....”

Lera, seeing the gravity of the implication, grows serious “Damn, you might be right. She could be like a sleeper agent, or something.... On that note, there actually isn't much we know about how the Sigil heads are doing this....”

Boz, with a concerned tone in his voice, states “We might not know, but Raphael does.”

“Yeah, who exactly is this kid anyway? He is a kid, right?” Lera asks.

“That's... a fair point.” Jian responds “We've seen him a lot by this point, and he does seem to know a lot, but he's way too young to have this kind of knowledge and skill... who the hell is he.”

“Or what the hell is he....” Boz mutters, putting the group in a few moments of silence from his statement.

There is a deep silence between the group of three as they ponder this quandary. Raphael, despite his wisdom and foreknowledge of the events surrounding them, is extremely young in reality to know all the things he does. They then question the fact that he has been seen using magic, and has the ability to fight with strength far beyond his physic. Perhaps he is not even a human-being at all....

Boz speaks up at the end of the long stint of silence, stating “Just who in the hell did we hand Carie to....”

“Did we have a choice? Carie was on fire, and when we smothered it, all she had was a fever! What were we supposed to do, send her to a hospital? That wasn't normal, and Raphael's team seemed like they knew what they were doing, so it was the best thing we could have done! All we can do now is wait....” Jian states, concern for Carie in his voice.

“Bro, ya have a point....” Boz says in response. He turns his head towards the clock at the classroom's front wall and sees the time. “Aw hell, looks like homeroom's about to start! Come on, Lera, we gotta go.”

Lera gives an agreement in the form of a nod and waves to Jian as her and Boz leave out of the classroom. Jian waves back, but after they are gone, he begins to wonder to himself again Raphael's identity is worrying, but we have to focus on the important thing, and that's stopping the Sigil heads. We have three suspects, now we just need to investigate them individually. I wonder which one of them is their leader....