MYSTERIUM CLAVA (VOL. 2) - COMPLETED

CHAPTER 26

DAVE

A lot of things has changed in my life since I joined Mysterium Clava, I thought that being in a detective club will just feed me my thirst and hunger for mysteries and adventures—which I achieved—but I never thought that this will also be a reason for me to be stronger physically, mentally and emotionally with all of the chaos, battles and cases that we have dealt with.

Now, we are up against the most dangerous people that Holmes Academy has ever known because aside from L who we formed a temporary truce with, we had to deal with Lorraine Corpus who everyone thought was dead who has returned from her grave and aiming to seek redemption from L and Mysterium Clava. We also have someone that we need to watch out for, an organization who has been on the wanted list of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Celestial Mafia.

Can we win this battle? Is this going to end? Is it possible to return to our normal lives? Nothing is certain as of this very moment because as long as they are still walking around in this planet, they will stop at nothing until their objective has been achieved and right now, their main objective is to kill us—the hindrance to their plans.

It was at around 10:30 AM when I went to the clubroom in order to rest and get some updates about our plans in exploiting the snake within the group wherein it consist of us—Mysterium Clava, LEGION and the FBI.

Pagpasok ko sa loob nang aming clubroom ay inabutan ko sina Tetsuya who was doing some paperworks which I presume was one of his projects in class, NZIB who was busy with her laptop as usual, Ryn who was chilling at the couch while drinking some milktea and Toby who was also reading a book while leaning on the wall as expected.

I looked around and I see no signs of our club president. Where could he be? He might still be in his class which I am certain that it will probably bore him to death but he doesn't have a choice but to attend those classes anyway.

"If you are looking for Craige, he is still not here obviously. As you already presumed, he is still in his class." Toby said which I shouldn't be surprised that he was able to read my thoughts, maybe my microexpressions were already a dead giveaway.

Napalingon ako when I noticed that NZIB and Ryn was looking at me, hindi lang sila nakatingin dahil binibigyan nila ako nang isang makahulugang ngiti.

What was that malicious smirk for?

NZIB turned off her laptop while Ryn placed her milktea on the side table bago sila tumayo at saka ako pinaupo.

Why am I seated here? Bakit parang nasa interrogation ako ngayon dito? At para saan ang malisyosong mga ngiti nila? Can someone explain what's going on?

"Nabalitaan namin na nasa iisang bahay na lang kayo ni Craige, ah!" naka-ngising pang-aasar ni NZIB.

Ito na nga ba ang sinasabi ko, eh!

"How was it like to live in the same house as our club president?" gatong pa ni Ryn.

Naramdaman ko ang biglang pag-init ng aking mga pisngi dahil sa mga tanong nito.

Toby decided to ignore us as he plugged his earphone into his ears while reading his book. Habang si Tetsuya ay nagpapaka-busy sa kanyang project as if he doesn't want to take part of this crap.

What happened to Tetsuya? He is unusually quiet. Hindi man lang niya ako binati noong pumasok ako which is unusual.

"W-wait. . . Kung ano man ang iniisip ninyo ay nagkakamali kayo." I tried to defend myself from whatever they are thinking. "We were invited by FBI Director Dalmacio to temporarily stay sa Dalmacio Manor since my father and him are the only FBI agents survived from Raine's ambush attacks. It would be safe—according to him—to stay at their place until everything is all set and done."

Ano ba ito? Bakit parang grabe naman ang pagpapaliwanag ko? I am not a culprit here, okay?

"Hoy, Tetsuya! Bakit parang masyado ka 'atang natahimik diyan? Bakit? Nagseselos ka, 'no?" nang-aasar na tanong ni NZIB.

Tetsuya glared at our club hacker.

"Sorry, I was busy working on my project kaya hindi na muna ako makakasali sa discussions niyo." Tetsuya defended himself.

Ryn and NZIB looked at each other as they tried their best to suppress their laughter.

"You don't have to lie, Mayuzumi. You were just doing FLAMES behind your notebook like a 5th grader 3 seconds ago. I saw everything." pagbubunyag dito ni Toby na nakasandal pa rin sa pader habang hawak ang kanyang libro.

Ilang minutong natulala si Tetsuya dahil sa mga sinabi ni Toby. He even gave him a What-Are-You-Talking-About look on his face.

"Shut up, Toby. I am really working on my project here!" he tried to stay calm as he defended himself.

Before anyone could react, the door flew wide open.

It was Craige.

"What's with the commotion here?" seryosong tanong ni Craige na tila naguguluhan sa nangyayari.

Ryn, NZIB, Tetsuya and myself looked at each other habang si Toby naman ay nagpatuloy lang sa pagbabasa niya na parang wala itong nangyayari sa kapaligiran.

"Wala! Nagbibiruan lang naman kami dito tungkol sa pagtira sa inyo ni Dave, Mr. President." naka-ngising sabi ni NZIB bago ito bumalik sa kanyang laptop.

Craige just shook his head bago ito nagpunta sa kanyang table.

Ryn brought out a folder where I presume that will have all of the documents that we are about to discuss today, at saka niya ito inabot kay Craige.

Craige scanned the documents page per page before he shut it.

He stood up and looked across each one of us.

"We have here are all of the documents where the security camera's all over the street has recorded—with the help of NZIB—during the attack on Dave's house. The plate number were visible kaya naman pina-track namin ito sa LTFRB." pinakita sa aming lahat ni Craige lahat ng documents na hinanda ni Ryn.

"Ano naman ang naging resulta?" I asked.

Craige shook his head. "As expected, the plate number was not registered with the LTFRB but there were some faces that was captured by the security camera's and was identified through face recognition."

He pointed out the document where the names and their photos were attached.

Eduardo Madrid, Frank Casimero, Sixto Agustin and Vergel Marcelino.

I shook my head. Wala maski isa sa kanila ang pamilyar sa akin. Sino sila? Were they Raine's accomplice?

"The names and photos that you are seeing right now are all ex-convicts who has committed murder, robbery, kidnapping and even drug related crimes. There is a huge possibility that Raine has recruited them because of the skills and crimes that they had committed which will be useful in her goal to kill us." Ryn discussed as she pointed on the photos on the file.

"But there is someone that we didn't expected to see that was captured by the security camera a couple of blocks away from where your house was located, Dave." NZIB said before she showed us her laptop screen.

Nanlaki ang mga mata ko matapos ko makita ang lalaki sa screen.

Could it be?. . .

Is he the snake?

"We don't have any concrete evidence yet that can prove that this man is the snake within our group but for the very least, we now know who to watch out for and who we should investigate in this case." Craige said as he sat down at the top of the table looking at us.

"Ryn and NZIB, try to get more information about that bastard. Tetsuya, try to stalk him and identify his whereabouts for the entire day. There must be something, I don't believe that him being in that location is just a mere coincidence, there must be a proper explanation for that." Toby said as he walked beside Craige.

Ryn, NZIB and Tetsuya nodded as they accepted the task that was given to them.

Is he the snake? Is he the traitor?

Is the Master of Gossip, Leonardo Augustine the snake that betrayed us?