Crystal's Resident Part 2

A new morning rises. The birds chirp's plays an orchestra of musical symphony all over the forest. The serene silence of the lake upon the the sun gently rising, displays a calm and deafining atmosphere as the fog lays low near.

Tokoyami rises early from his tent and did a moderate number of morning stretches. He then immediately grabs a fishing rod to start catching fish.

"This time for sure!" Tokoyami silently chants in order to motivate himself. He throws the hook as far as possible. He sits and comforts himself in a folding chair while he waits patiently.

The cheif ranger is patrolling the area and notices Tokoyami eagerly waiting for a haul

"You wont catch any of that if you dont use a bait to lure the fish in" Agan said and sits besides Tokoyami

Tokoyami looks for a second. "Good morning sir" Tokoyami replied

"Here let me show how to do it" Agan said and uses his own fishing rod to catch fish. "This forest is very important to our family's heritage. For the past decades our bloodline have been fostering this forest into what it has become now. It is the symbol of our existence" he then narrated

Time passes by and the girls wakes up in their tents looking gloomy than ever.

"G-good morning everyone" Tsuyu groggingly said

"What time is it? The weather is getting colder lately" Jirou replied

"I think what we need, is a hot soup" Hagakure suggested. She then went to prepare a food as she grabs a caserole. "Jirou a little help"

"Sure" Jirou responded and heads towards her to help out

"I should take my leave now. On the afternoon I will buy a couple of firewoods and other essentials, since were short on supplies. Just go head back to the base to get anything you need. You kids take care of yourselves" Agan said and he grabs his fishing rod along with his hat to continue on his patrols

"Still no catch huh" Tsuyu said after noticing Tokoyami struggling from his fishing. Tsuyu stands near Tokoyami as she looks from a far

"I'm getting the hang of it, soon I can catch a couple atleast" Tokoyami assured

Tsuyu wonders for a second as her expression changes. She then asked, "I remembered you saying that yesterday. Are you perhaps..."

Tokoyami stares intently and said "Don't go there"

A moment passed and Hagakure announces to everyone that the cup noodle she prepared is already done. Tokoyami left his fishing spot and Tsuyu follows. They indulged to the food and cheers to a kiwi flavored carbonated drink

"Yesterday we haven't found any evidence of what the spirit looks like, we even stayed up late but still no nimble" Tsuyu said as dissapointment can be noticed on what she feels

Hagakure vaguely nodded and reminded "We will return back home tomorrow morning"

Tokoyami said, "Besides, if we want to document any evidence we need-"

"Well since we don't have any clue leading to the case we are chasing, we should just go ahead and use up this time to enjoy" Jirou interrupted with a slight of smile

Isn't that what you've been doing all this time, Tokoyami thought

"Although this is a failure to our side, we should accept it and learn from the journey" Tsuyu replied

"We're gonna go ahead after we finish our meal first" Jirou said

After eating and cleaning the place, they proceed to head out for their one last stroll

As they were about to leave Tsuyu looks back and said "Tokoyami, you sure you don't want to go with us"

"I made up my mind to catch a fish, if its the last thing I'll do" Tokoyami confidently replied

Jirou sighs and said "What a lazy member dont you think"

"I'll take that as a compliment" Tokoyami replied back immediately expecting the message from Jirou

The night is born and the weather is more chilling than ever. The insects around the forest begans chanting continuously. They huddled near a campfire as they fuel it with the new newspapers they got from the ranger's supplies--since there were less firewood in the market. The smoke coming from it can be seen from above painting the black ocean of sky

"I think we should stop using anymore newspapers, the fire should last for a little while. Plus I dont like the smoke for it irritates our eyes" Jirou suggested and handed out a newspaper for Hagakure to keep

The newspaper Hagakure received caught her attention as she peeked through one of the headlines

"You guys should take a look at this" Hagakure said

"What is it?" Jirou asked

"Its a breaking news! Two guys were found in their houses hanged to death. I remember these people's name are the one who took the spirit's photo" Hagakure said

"You think its a curse or suicide?" Jirou asked

Tokoyami peeked and said, "The date of this newspaper is a day ago but the bodies looks like a couple days rotting"

"What do you mean by that?" Hagakure asked

"Hmm, looks like I may have puzzled up several good clues" Tokoyami said

"Of what?" Jirou added

"This may just be a theory but I think the murder that happened to have killed these people might have took place in here. And the suspects are obviously the forest's rangers" Tokoyami said

Shock is written in their expression as they were surprised on Tokoyami's revelation. They became silent for a second then Jirou said, "Don't scare us like that"

"Care to explain" Tsuyu interrupted and sits beside them--she appears to have came from the base and carries a small towel for the cold

"Where have you been?" Hagakure asked

"I went out to find a heat pack for the cold but unfortunately, I can't find myself any" Tsuyu replied

"I should start from the beginning. The picture taken by those people is fabricated by the suspect. During my fishing trip, I have not caught a single fish, so I decided to catch one bare hands. I dove in fairly deep in the lake and found a dead catfish, this fish has a big scratch in his side, resulting of the removal of its fins and it's also covered with some kind of weird dirt or mossy substance" Tokoyami said as he shows the fish he caught having a bad smell

"How is that connected to the murder?" Tsuyu asked

"The suspect originally wants to intruige the people online to take interest to this place because of this preserve's gradual loss of its customers. And he used the victims that took the picture for it to work. I first suspected out from the fact that the sign from the entrance of the preserve is a message to merely discourage the interest of land rennovators to buy and exploit this forest. The journalists that took the photo were supposed to convince investors to help buy this land. So he also planned it to lose the investor's trust and hopefully lose their interest--knowing that these journalist's will always make a publicity out of it. Its like catching two fish in one haul. Back home, I researched on my computer and found out that this place will soon be claimed by the bank due to an unpaid dept. Ownership of this place should be an easy solution using money, since I also found that a certain company wants to buy it" Tokoyami said.

"This dirt around the catfish are remains of dead algaes. The suspect first baited other fishes to move from the side or simply elimated them....."

Probably one of the reason why he can't catch one, Jirou thought

"...to start his scheme. Then he uses this male catfish from the aquarium considering the fact that there are scratches in the glass making it cramped before and the other catfish is pregnant. These kinds of algaes are called dinoflagellates, they usually glow blue in the dark and live in the sea, but due to its poisonous essence fishes usually doesn't go near it or shake it off their body. After unknowledgely pouring the algaes on the water, the suspect could have noticed that the catfish is not going near the algaes so he either tried to chop one of its fins on a nearby fishing spot here with knife scratches, or the fish could have slipped from his hands and went to the water, so he uses a harpoon to remove one of its fins--catfish are known to have hard bones. The fish's movement should be wobbly and struggling to swim from the algaes latching from it as the picture taken looks like a big spirit swimming from right and left leaving blue trails"

"Then the victims should know its made up if they only get closer" Jirou said

"The suspect should be one of their accomplice controlling their actions.That should make them three, he could be preventing them to go near by saying it is not safe or the lake is a restricted area. But an outsider changed the suspects original agenda. That outisder should not have any idea of the plan for he is startled seeing the lake goes blue. He veers the assumption to the two victims to be poisoning the lake and ended up killing them. And if I am right the first suspect is Ubon and the second one is Agan. Agan should have used the strong string from his fishing rod (since he is the only one carrying it always) or his metal name tag strap to strangulate them, even though he knows that Ubon is there, he still went away due to his anger(I can tell because of his love to this place). Ubon was forced to help his father and clean the murder weapon using a cloth or maybe water. But Ubon unprecedently insisted to post the photo and made it look like it is posted by the victims. They then have kept the bodies for a while inside a room where they store fishing equipments since the fishing rods back in the base are just placed on the floor and wiped clean. At the first day when all of you are on your acitvities, I tried to check what's inside but its locked in shut. And they were suspiciously guarding it always, so I can't force myself in. They switch places of guarding it as well, to not lose track of us. Even without a window, I can smell a faint of blood inside. Then they have decided to bring the bodies all the way back to their houses that night since when I tried to enter the day after, it was unlocked and the room is neat and clean. It just so happened that they still kept the only thing that lead me to all of this, this is the cloth I got when I talked to Agan earlier from his pocket. There are times when someone was new on committing a murder, he hides the evidence in his pocket to make himself feel more safe and secured. It has blood stains in it so the forensics should-" Tokoyami abbruptely said after showing the stained cloth

"What is it?" Hagakure asked

"Looks like we got ourselves a curious detective" Obun interrupted displaying a very disturbed expression

Tokoyami stands up. "Jirou, Hagakure, Asui get behind me!" Tokoyami hurriedly said

"I was about to dispose that thing but I noticed it missing in my pocket....This shouldn't take long" Agan replied beside Obun smiling widely to inflict fear and clenches a fist