A mortified Ryuji

"Ohhhh man.... I'm so dead..." Ren and Makoto heard as they approached the door. They exchanged a glance, and Makoto slowly cracked the door open, seeing Ryuji nervously pacing back and forth.

"Ren's gonna kill me... Ann's gonna kill me... Makoto-- Oh Man she's gonna SUPER kill me!" he whimpered.

"And why is that?" Makoto said. Ryuji was so terrified by her sudden interruption that Ren could practically see his soul leave his body. He spun around to face them, his face going white as a ghost.

"M-M-Makoto! Ren! L-listen! At least let me explain!" he whined. "It wasn't my fault I swear!"

Makoto put her hands on her hips, glaring at him.

"What did you do?" she asked pointedly.

"W-WAIT! That's what I'm tryin' to tell you! I didn't do anything! I - I mean... Not on purpose! I mean... I didn't expect... gaaaah!" he stammered, tripping all over his words before finally sitting down. "Listen okay? Ms Kawakami asked me to come in here with her. I guess a lotta student's have been commenting on Ren's show yesterday..." he muttered.

Makoto looked down at her feet, shyly.

"Yes... I've certainly received my fair share of comments" she huffed, her face turning a bit pink. "But what does that have to do with Ms. Kawakami disappearing?"

"Well she asked me to tell her what happened yesterday! So I started going over the show. I was explaining that Ren told her that if she was having her shoulder touched or whatever she'd do what he said. But then Mishima called me so I answered and... I don't remember what we were talking about, but we were talking about something. Next thing I knew she brushed my hand off her shoulder - I just apologized figuring I was being rude and forgot to move my hand. But then when I turned around she was gone and... um..."

Ryuji kicked his foot under the table, and Kawakami's shirt and skirt came out from under it.

"She uh... l-l-left these?"

Makoto looked at Ren with a terrified expression, while Ren looked... more annoyed than anything.

"At least she's not fully naked..." he sighed, realizing her bra and underwear weren't in the pile.

"Ryuji. What EXACTLY did you say to her?" Makoto snapped.

"I - I don't know! I don't remember! It's whatever me and Mishima were talking about and... well we were talking about a lot of stuff alright! I finally realized she was gone when the bell rang!"

Makoto began to pace back and forth.

"Okay... the bright side is that it's early in the morning, and it sounds like this happened just before class. Meaning the likelihood that anyone saw her is very low."

"How is that a bright side?! That means we have nowhere to start for clues!" Ryuji whined.

"It's a bright side because she'd have been running around half-naked through the school! She'd get fired if anyone saw her!" Makoto replied.

"But Ryuji is right. This doesn't give us anywhere to start. And we have no idea what Ryuji was saying to Mishima that she could have interpreted as a command... Mishima probably wouldn't know either since it sounds like they were talking for at least a few minutes. Who knows where the conversation went."

Makoto pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Okay. We have to find her. Ryuji, you just... stay here and try not to break anyone else..." she huffed.

Ren nodded.

"Right. Here's the plan then. Makoto, we'll collect Ann and search on the ground. After all, Ann... will probably understand the situation well considering--"

"You also hypnotized her?" Makoto snipped.

"Right. While I go get her, I'll get in touch with Sumi and Haru about searching the school. You contact Futaba to see if she can find anything on social media about a hot teacher in her underwear, and Akechi to see if he's heard anything. I'll meet you back at the front gate." Ren said, as he began to march off.

"W-wait! I can help!" Ryuji argued. But Ren ignored him. Ryuji WAS his best friend but sometimes... well, sometimes it was better for him to sit things out.

After a bit, Ren and Ann met up with Makoto to begin their search.