Author's Note

CONTAINS: Slight Language

Case "Sour" Sweet - 2 'Girlhunter'

After getting your leads from the biology teacher, you decided it was time to track down Sour Sweet's friends and gather information straight from them. Your first target, Indigo Zapp. You once again used the faculty elevator to head down to the first floor, where you headed towards the cafeteria. It was a long line today, mostly because today's menu had Tacos, even though it wasn't Tuesday... it was Friday... never the less you trudged on inside, looking around the cafeteria with careful precision to spot Indigo Zapp.

There she was, eating by herself at a nearby window. Heading over to her, you introduced yourself in the only way you knew how.

"How's my old masked hunter doing?" You went, getting her attention.

"Oh... it's you..." Indigo replied, "What do you want? Can't you see I'm busy eating lunch?"

"If by lunch you mean the wrong menu item for Friday then yes, I can see you are. I'm here because I... need your help,"

"It's about Sour Sweet isn't it?" Indigo softly replied.

"How did you know that?"

"Rumors fly around Crystal Prep like wildfire. Sugarcoat came to you to see if you could solve the case didn't she?"

"Well, uh... yeah?" You replied, a little creeped out.

"You've come to me to see if I could possibly give you any evidence to point to the theories you were given by the biology teacher did you?"

"I..."

"You're easier to figure out than you know detective,"

"I came because I wanted to know if you had anymore leads I could follow, I've got two good ones and a dead one with little evidence behind it-"

"That being the possibility of her being a trap? A fem-boy as it were?"

"Uh..."

"By admission, you seem to think you're smarter than me by doing this, after all you did solve the mystery behind my disappearance,"

"No... I'm not smarter than you, I never thought that-"

"Then how did you find me?"

"You had disadvantages,"

"What kind of disadvantages?"

"You went insane,"

"And as if you haven't yet?"

You went silent, stunned by what Indigo Zapp had just said.

"You're very shaking. Your hands are rough, they don't look like a detective's hands anymore ever since the mystery behind my vanishing act. Did the whole mystery shake you up this badly? Don't think you can shake me up with appealing to me surviving my encounter with that creature,"

"I don't think I'll persuade you at all," You replied, "You'll either help me or you won't. Besides, with me working on it I'll crack this case soon and I'm the best detective in all of Crystal Preparatory Academy."

Indigo remained silent for a minute.

"You want to know everything?"

"Times, dates, testimony, I'll need all I can get if I plan on cracking this,"

"Well, here's my story from the day before yesterday," Indigo Zapp began, "The rest of the girls and I had just gotten through with gym class and were heading to the showers to cool off, but Sour Sweet wanted to go in and do it after everyone else had already finished. This isn't anything new either, for she's been doing for a long time now, something about her skin or something like that, but anyways, this time, she seemed like, really adamant about going in last. Something was a little... twitchy as it were with her. It was like as if she was in a really huge hurry and she seemed to be... moving like as if she was hiding something."

"In her pants?"

"I couldn't tell, she was moving so fast none of us could get a straight answer, all she said was, 'no time to explain, just move the hell out of my way,' and that was that. She was perfectly normal for the rest of the day,"

"That's... quite something. So nothing else happened the rest of the day afterward?"

"Not as far as I can recall anyway..."

"All that does is give me a little more water to put in the possibly a trap theory and nothing else,"

"I'd recommend possibly chatting with Lemon Zest, she can tell you quite the story that happened back on Saturday,"

"Well... uh... thanks for the help, I guess?" You said, really adamant on leaving.

"Do you know how you found me, detective?"

"Goodbye, Indigo Zapp," You quickly said as you tried to get up.

"Do you know how you found me? The reason you caught me, detective, is that we're just alike," Indigo called out as you picked up the pace with every step you took, "Do you understand?!"

Indigo's words stopped as soon as you left the cafeteria, leaning against a locker you took a sigh of relief, before feeling a hand placed on your should and finding yourself placing your hands onto the collar of a woman's uniform and slamming her against the lockers to see yourself face to face with...

"Dean Cadence!" You said in surprise, letting her go, "I'm so-"

"No need for apologies, it's my fault, I shouldn't have surprised you like that and knowing how jumpy you can be," Cadence replied, dusting herself off, "Hey, you alright? You seem shaken?"

"Yeah... I just... ran into an old friend,"

"On the case again?"

"It's Sour Sweet. Her friends have tried everything to get her to relay what she's been hiding, but no luck. Not even the guidance counselor got her to crack, so don't think you will either, no offense,"

"After what happened with Cinch? No way am I gonna interfere with whatever case you're into, just be sure to be careful with that tranquilizer, I really don't want a repeat of... what did you call it?"

"The IG-8 Incident, or the Armor Mystery as I call it due to the fact you specifically hired to me to look into if Shining Armor was cheating on you and it resulted in me tranquilizing Twilight on accident in her own home,"

"Yeah... that... I REALLY don't want a repeat of that,"

"I'm less trigger happy than I was back then, believe me, I won't shoot unless I have to,"

"As long as we're clear on that, I'll leave you to whatever it was you were doing, farewell,"

You tip your hat to Cadence and then silently look at your hands. You just attacked Cadence. You shook your head and looked forward. You tried to get a grip on yourself and said to yourself that Indigo's words were just getting to you. After all, it was just an accident wasn't it? ... Wasn't it? You'd never intentionally hurt someone, would you? ... Would ... You?

Never the less, you trudged on to find Lemon Zest and see what Indigo Zapp had gone on about. You eventually found her on the second floor in math class, via looking through the door. You opened it and made your presence known to those in the room. The teacher was about to get on you for interrupting the class until she saw the badge and recognized who you were. Instantly she just went back to teaching the class while you went up to Lemon Zest and pulled her out of class to speak to her.

"What is it you want?" Lemon Zest asked, a bit curious.

"Indigo Zapp told me you know a story about something related to Sour Sweet on Saturday,"

"Oh..." Lemon softly went, "I... I see..."

"What happened? I need to know so I can use it to help my theories for what Sour Sweet might be hiding,"

"Well... on Saturday..." Lemon Zest began, "Sour Sweet and I had gone out for some donuts and coffee early in the morning because we were gonna be having a nice big slumber party with the rest of the girls to celebrate Indigo's return... but I accidentally spilled some of it on her pants on the walk home, on her vagina area too. She got really mad at me, and I mean, REALLY mad at me for it. She had to walk really awkwardly for the rest of the trip back home to her house, but when we did she took an awfully long time in the shower, I mean a REALLY long time in the shower."

"How long would you estimate?"

"Mmmmmaybey about thirty, forty, fifty, to sixty minutes?"

"Nearly a whole hour in the shower? Why would she do that?"

"She never said why, she just went in with her clothes on, threw her wet clothes in the clothing bin and moved on like as if it never happened,"

"I see. Thank you for your time Lemon Zest, I've got all I needed from you," You replied. You and Lemon Zest said your farewells before you headed down to your office. It was almost time for the final bell. Packing your things, and after locking up for the day, you headed to your scheduled classes and picked up your work for the day, luckily it was only history class you needed to pick up anything from. By the time you got home, you wasted no time heading for the backyard, and into your personalized office building, constructed by your parents when they found out their kid was working as the school detective like how they were cops.

Finishing up your school work, you immediately began setting up shop with your thumbtack board, a picture of Sour Sweet in the center and red lines directed towards the notes you've taken as well as the theories presented to you by the biology teacher. Indigo Zapp's and Lemon Zests's stories seemed to have added a bit more water to the possible Trap theory, but the problem was that it barely connected with the stories told to you by Sugarcoat. The only thing it had any connections to was when Sour Sweet would hold her lower section during anatomy, but it didn't align with the other two stories if she really was a trap someone would've noticed by now. You decided to give Sugarcoat a ring to see if she had any more info she could possibly give you, but just as you got to the phone, it rang. You groaned expecting it to be another telemarketer.

"Yeah, what do you want?" You groaned in annoyance.

"Having trouble putting together the pieces?"

Your eyes shot open in horror.

"How did you get this number..."

"Do you perhaps need some assistance?"

"How, did you, get, this, number..." You said more firmly.

"I asked an old client of yours for it, by the way, she's still feeling sore from where you shot her, detective,"

"What do you want Indigo Zapp..."

"I called because I just remembered something related to Sunday. While we were out in the mall, Sour Sweet had noticed a couple of transgender protesters outside one of the clothing departments. Apparently, they were on strike for the place firing an employee recently who came out as a transgender and she really seemed to stiffen up when this happened,"

"But... that doesn't make any sense, it doesn't line up with all the stories I've heard so far,"

"Does it really not line up? Or are you just looking at your evidence wrong?"

"I have, NEVER, looked at any piece of evidence wrong," You went, getting defensive.

"Just like with my medical records from when I was a kid?"

You went silent, slack-jawed at what you had just heard.

"Yeah, I know about those. After all, I was the one who put them in the sewers when I still had some slight control over myself. I was the one who lead you there in the first place after all,"

You were still silent.

"Well, I must be going, I hope when you call Sugarcoat she gives you more information to work with,"

"Indigo... Indigo?"

Indigo then hung up.

"Indigo? Indigo? Indigo? Indigo? Indigo? Indigo?"