Yuki Nekoyama's Arc

Chapter 5 of 7

After class, Yuki met Raven at the castle gate. Stone arches curved above them, cold and grand. Yuki carried the library book in her bag, the cat poem tucked inside. "The artists' hallway is past here," Raven said, and led the way. Yuki followed, thumb pressed to the strap of her bag. If she matched the cats on the walls to the cats in her book, she would finally have a name. The hallway walls held rows of student art. Yuki slowed. Three cat canvases hung close together. One showed a black cat ringed with purple stars. One had a striped tabby with sharp eyes. The last was a round grey kitten with big eyes. Yuki pulled her book out and held the margin sketches beside each one. Her heart sank. None of them matched. The lines were different. The shading was wrong. "They don't look like his," she whispered. "Look for a name," Raven said. Yuki leaned in and checked each corner. The black cat canvas had no signature. The kitten had none. Only the tabby held a small mark, too smudged to read. Yuki's hope shrank. She could not tell whose hand drew the poem. The wall gave her nothing but strangers' cats. Down the hall, a voice rose. Yuna Starling stood with a small group, talking fast about Kai Ravencroft. "He looked right at me, okay, I'm not making it up, he did—" She stopped. Her eyes found Yuki, and her face pinched into a frown. Yuki knew that look. Yuna had disliked her for weeks, always sharp, always cold. Yuki dropped her gaze and tried to shrink. Raven stepped forward. She did not raise her voice. "You have a problem with her?" Raven asked. Flat. Direct. The group went quiet. Yuna crossed her arms. "I don't—it's not—" She stopped, started again. "She keeps sniffing around Kai. Everyone knows it. The notes, the library, all of it." She jerked her chin at Yuki. "So yeah. I've got a problem." Yuki froze. Yuna knew about the notes. That meant others might too. But something in the words caught. Yuna thought the notes came from Kai. Yuki had suspected him herself, then doubted it. "Kai draws these?" Yuki asked, and held up the poem's margin. Yuna's mouth opened, then closed. She looked at the sketches. "No," she said slowly. "Kai can't draw. He can't even draw a stick guy. I've seen his club notebook." She frowned harder, but not at Yuki now. "That's not his." Yuki's breath caught. The wall had failed her. But Yuna had not. Kai was out. Two suspects had become one. "Then it's not Kai," Yuki said, half to herself. Raven pulled her back toward the gate. "Come on. We know more than we did." Yuki tucked the book away. The artists' wall held no answer. But one name had fallen off her list, and only one boy remained.