The Quest Begins....

To find an answer to a huge complex problem, all we need to do, is to break it into small pieces and then solve every piece separately.....

__________

"So firstly, let's recall all the incidents from the morning of that day till now and sum them up. Maybe, we can find something useful." Xavier suggested.

"You are right nothing is perfect in this world, there is always a flaw in even the most beautiful diamond. So, the culprit must have definitely left any clue." Emmie pondered.

Arnel, Zephyr and Flora carefully made a record of all the necessary events that came about and jotted them down in their diary.

Then, they all carefully went through it and wrote down a few questions that were yet to be answered, on an abandoned black board that they found on the roof top.

1. Who was the last person she met?

2. Was it planned or accidental?

3. What would the culprit gain?

4. Was she at odds with someone?

5. Was the person behind her and Emmie's case the same or different?

6. Why did Sana frame Emmie and where did she get the fake pics from?

"Come to think of it, I guess we know nothing. All we have are only questions and no answer." Arnel spoke dejectedly.

" I guess we should look at the pics again, maybe, we can conclude something from them. Afterall, they are the only hard evidence and our only clue." Zephyr suggested.

"You are right, but how are we supposed to get a hold of those. They are placed at the locker in the Principal's office." Emmie sighed.

"Leave that to me, I will get them. After all, I am also a teacher." Xavier said in a confident tone while walking towards the staircase right away.

"Well... Emmie do you remember any details that seemed to you a bit off when you last chatted with Yena?" Flora asked.

"Nothing special, Yena was preparing for her assignments, so we hardly had any time to catch up. The last time we spoke was on a call like a week ago. That time we only talked for a little more than five minutes or so. She didn't say anything strange." Emmie replied.

"Wait, I think by that time she was already acting strange." Arnel spoke up.

"What do you exactly mean?"Emmie seemed restless.

"Didn't you guys always talk for quite long. I remember, once, I had to wait for about an hour for your call to over before I could discuss you about the work. And as for the assignments, the teacher asked me to place them in his cupboard. They were already over long ago." Arnel said in a tense voice.

"So, my best friend was in a grave trouble for so long and I was too dumb, that I could even figure it out." Emmie was too downhearted.

"Then I will go to her class to ask around, and see if I can find anything." Flora rushed downstairs while saying it.

"What about the person who locked you in the washroom? Did you catch a glimpse of him? Was it a boy or girl?" Zephyr asked curiously.

"Well.....It...It was...It was a boy i think. I was knocked out so I couldn't get a proper glimpse."

Emmie clearly seemed to be hiding something about her incident but he thought that she must be traumatized and didn't want to think much about it so he just moved on without chasing the topic any further.

"I got them." Xavier walked in holding the pictures in his hand.

As they had expected those pics were photoshopped.

"Can you restore them to the original." Emmie asked.

"Of course.. It's a child's play." Arnel smirked and went off to the lab.

"It's time for the physical education class. I need to go now." Xavier bid farewell.

Now it was just Emmie and Zephyr left.

"Do you think, there was someone else who was also not present in the class that time."

Emmei asked.

"Well! It may be. How about we ask our home room teacher for the attendance register and verify it by asking the whereabouts of all the students present that day." Zephyr suggested.

"Only our class will not do. We will have to ask her class students also. And also everyone else she knows. It will take us weeks. And, do you think they will tell us the truth?" Emmie went on.

"You have a point." Zephyr nodded.

"By the way, it's about time, the school will be over soon. Let's continue tomorrow. And by the way, you can drop by the hospital to check on Yena. You might feel some better." he added.

"Let's wait for Flora and Arnel before we go." Emmie said looking down.

There was pin drop silence for a while when suddenly Arnel and Flora's arrival broke the ice.

They look quite tense with wrinkles on their brow.

"Yena was on leave for a week!!! I asked around and found that before, she hadn't submitted her assignments either. Her classmates said that they were quite surprised as she would always be the first to hand them in for the past years. And the most shocking fact is that the day she had the mishap, her classmates didn't see her in the class since the first period. So, I went to her home room teacher only to find that it was her last day of leave." Flora said breathlessly.

Everyone gazed at her in terror and Emmie cross questioned her.

"So, what you mean is that she was behaving abnormally from a long time. And also on the day of accident she was marked to be on leave but was present in the school?"

Flora nodded.

Things were starting to get trickier.

"And yes..... These four are the ones she was at odds with and this one is the person she last talked to before going on leave." Flora handed a paper to Emmie.

Emmie's hands trembled as she saw the names. She quickly folded the paper and sliped it in her pocket.

"Who is it." Arnel and Zephyr questioned.

"Let's investigate them tomorrow." Flora said immediately.

"All right." they nodded.

"What about you, Arnel." Emmie turned over to him.

He pulled out the original pics from his pocket and projected them in the centre.

But the original pics weren't as simple either.

Everyone was spaced out after looking at them.

For Emmie and Flora the pics had helped them to entangle a very complicated knot.

But, for Arnel and Zephyr it was another unanswered question.

So, what exactly did they see?

And what was actually written on that paper?