Near sat on his hotel bed going through the countless students of Shujin Academy while Lidner, Gevanni and Rester silently sat beside his hotel bed in chairs.
"Near, if you don't mind me asking, why are you looking through the entire school's roster? Who exactly are you looking for?" Gevanni asked.
"It's not who, it's what." Near said as he kept flipping through the school's records.
"The Phantom Thieves appeared in May of this year. Correct? However Kamoshida has been abusing students for much longer, which suggests the culprit either got the power to change hearts recently or is new to the school entirely." Near stopped flipping through the school's records and looked to the rest of his team.
"If you would like to help things move a bit faster, you can all help me look for any students who recently came before or during the month of May."
The rest of the team grabbed a section of the school's records and began looking through it. Hours passed by with seemingly no result, Lidner was the first to speak up.
"I've found a student here who fits the description. He came to the school on April 11th. It also says here on his attendance record that he was late on his first day."
Near got up to look at the page that showed the student. "Hmm... Ren Amamiya." Near said with intrigue. "He's got a record... Commander Rester if you don't mind, would you kindly look up what Ren Amamiya did to be transferred in the middle of a school year?"
"No problem," Rester replied while typing away on the police records. When he was done he leaned in and stared at the screen for a couple of seconds. "It says here that he was charged with assault and sentenced to probation. Shujin Academy seems to be the only school that was willing to accept him. " Rester finished.
Near stared at the screen and said "Well, with all that stated I believe we have our first suspect. Tomorrow I say we all head to Shujin Academy to learn a bit more about him."
"You want to confront the suspect this early?" Gevanni said, confused.
"No, we won't be confronting him yet. We're merely going to learn his patterns and behavior. We won't find the phantom thieves. If he truly is one, he'll lead us to them."
After heading to sleep the team headed off to Shujin Academy. They walked inside and headed towards the principal's office. Inside the room sitting behind a desk was a man in a black suit with glasses . Rester and Lidner walked in and pulled out their badges to show who they were.
"The Japanese Police? I thought you all weren't coming to interview students until tomorrow?" The man in the chair said with surprise.
Near sat in the chair directly in front of him.
"Hello, I assume you must be principal Kobayakawa. I am L, my team and I are currently investigating the phantom thieves. I would appreciate your assistance if you don't mind." Near said facing the man.
"Oh, I'm sorry." The man in the chair said with slight dismay. "Principal Kobayakawa passed away from an accident last month. I'm the Vice Principal stepping in for him in the meantime."
Near's face paused for a second to think. "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. In that case I'd just like to speak to a certain teacher so I can get out of your way." Near said as he reached in his pocket to pull out a photo of Ren Amamiya. "By any chance do you know who the homeroom teacher of this student is?" he said as he showed the photo to the vice principal.
"Oh, yeah I know him. He came not too long ago." the vice principal said looking at the photo. "His homeroom teacher is Ms. Kawakami. I'll be sure to call her right on down for you." He said before using the loud speaker.
A couple of minutes passed until a black haired lady in a long sleeve yellow striped shirt walked through the door. "Vice Principal, you asked to see me?" she said.
"Yes, the detective here would like to speak to you about one of your homeroom students." The vice principal said as he looked from Kawakami back to Near.
"I hope I didn't interrupt your class Ms. Kawakami." Near said calmly.
"Oh no it's fine, I was just wrapping up for the day." she said with a calming smile.
"Glad to hear, if you don't mind I'd like to ask you a couple of questions about one of your students." Near said as he handed her the picture of Ren.
Kawakami looked down at the picture with a slightly concerned face.
"What would you like to know?" she said with seriousness.
"I hear that he was late his first day, do you have any idea as to where he might have been by any chance?"
"No sorry, I don't know where he was when school was supposed to start. He was with another student when he came in late though. If it helps you could ask him."
"That won't be necessary. If you don't mind, may I have the other student's name?"
"Sure" Kawakami nodded "His name is Ryuji Sakamoto. Although I admit he's a bit of a troublemaker." she said right as the school's bell rang. She looked towards the exit "Oh, that's the school dismissal bell, I should get going." she said as if she was in a hurry to get somewhere.
"I appreciate the help Ms. Kawakami, however before you go I'd like to ask you one more question. How was Ren and Sakamoto's relationship with Kamoshida?"
Kawakami looked caught off guard by the question. She paused for a bit and said "Honestly Amamiya was new so he didn't really know Kamoshida. As for Ryuji...well honestly it wasn't that good. They got into a fight a while back and Kamoshida had to defend himself. That incident also caused the track team Sakamoto was on to get disbanded and he's held a grudge against Kamoshida since."
"Thank you Ms. Kawakami. I apologize for using up so much of your time." Near said as he and his team headed out.
"No problem, glad I could be of some assistance!" she yelled as they walked out.
As Near and his team headed out of the building into the car Lidner spoke up.
"Near, I noticed that Gevanni isn't with us. Where did he go?"
"I sent him to spy on our suspect. Although I admit after today my suspicion of our suspect has gone down slightly." Right as Near finished getting into the car he received a phone call.
"Hello?" Near answered.
"Near I've followed the suspect Ren Amamiya to a cafe named Leblanc. He along with six others are going in." Gevanni said in a hushed voice.
"Good work Gevanni, keep following them for now." Near replied.
"Got it, I'm walking into the cafe now. I'll pose as a customer and hopefully gauge their actions. Going on standby."
Gevanni walked in to see a man with a chinstrap beard and round glasses.
"Welcome!" the man said with a smile on his face. "What can I get for you today?"
Gevanni responded "I'll take a cup of coffee to go please."
"What kind of coffee would you like sir?"
Gevanni paused, "I'll take whatever you recommend".
After five minutes the man placed a cup on the table and gave Gevanni his order. Gevanni paid the bill and walked out of the building. He quickly turned back on his microphone to speak to Near.
"Near it appears they're all upstairs in the cafe attic. I'll wait outside for a bit to see if they do anything." After 10 minutes of hiding near Leblanc's exit, Gevanni saw seven people and a black cat leave and head into an alleyway. "Near, they've left the cafe. They're going into an alley. I'll quietly follow them to see what movements they make. I'll keep you updated."
After minutes of silence, Near heard a gasp in Gevanni's voice.
"Near, they're all gone... Everything including that cat he was carrying in his backpack. I've checked everywhere and it appears like they've just vanished." Gevanni said in complete shock.
"Alright, well we now know that they appear to meet there. Gevanni, go and set up surveillance equipment. When they come back we can see and hear what they say."
Near hung up the phone and breathed in relief.
"Well everyone, it looks like Gevanni has made some progress."
Rester spoke up and asked "What do we do in the meantime?"
"Now Commander Rester, we wait."
As they were waiting Lidner received a call on her cell phone.
After talking for a bit she responded with a simple
"Mhmm, alright I'll be there." she said as she hung up the phone.
"Gevanni needs my assistance with something, I'll be right back."
Around half an hour passed until Gevanni & Lidner returned to the hotel room.
"I've successfully planted 2 cameras and 6 microphones in the cafe. I hid equal amounts upstairs and downstairs. Just in case I also put a camera into that alleyway they were in." Gevanni sighed as he came in and laid down on one of the beds.
He continued. "I admit I had to get the old man out of the cafe, but luckily Lidner here helped to put on a show to get him out for a bit."
Lidner looked at Gevanni "Honestly I feel kind of bad taking advantage of the guy, all I did was say I lost my car keys and he not only found them but walked me all the way back to the car." she said.
Gevanni spoke up "Even then it was still a close call, I was barely out of the door by the time the guy came back. Regardless, this should hopefully be a crucial point in gathering information for the case."
"Good work Gevanni, now we just wait for them to come back and hopefully give us information." Near said as he watched the laptop for anything unusual.
Everyone huddled around the laptop to see if any of the surveillance equipment would pick up anything.
After nearly an hour of waiting seven people and a cat appeared from thin air into the alleyway Gevanni had a camera placed in.
Everyone's eyes were glued to the laptop screen as they saw the strange phenomenon unfold.
The seven teenagers disappeared from the camera's view and minutes passed until they were back in view again inside of Leblanc's cafe. They all headed upstairs into the attic's surveillance system..
"Glad we got that request out of the way! Be seeing you all later!" a blonde haired male said as he walked out.
"Alright everyone, I'm heading home! Tell Boss I said hi!" a dirty haired blonde female said as she walked out the cafe.
"Yeah I can't wait until Sojiro gets home so I can have some curry! See you all later!" a bright orange haired female with glasses said.
"Ahh curry, such an artful food!" a black haired male happily said walking out.
"Be sure to study everyone!" said a black haired female with short hair.
"Goodbye everyone!" A girl with light auburn hair said as she also headed out.
Near closed the surveillance tab and opened up a new window.
"Why did you turn off the surveillance?" Gevanni asked.
"Because I've already heard all I needed to, I'm checking something to confirm my suspicions." Near said as he went onto the Phantom Aficionado website.
"You're going to the phantom thief site?" Lidner asked with confusion.
"It looks like my theory was correct. Here on the site around a minute ago it says a request was just completed. It wasn't as big a target as they'd normally go after but from the looks of it they just used their power to change someone's heart." Near said pointing to the laptop.
"Should we go after them?" Lidner asked.
"Not yet, we've merely just confirmed they have the power to change hearts, we still need to know how. Besides, they'll most likely be revealing much more information to us tomorrow."
Everyone stared at Near, expecting him to explain exactly what he meant.
"What makes you think they'll reveal themselves to us tomorrow?" Gevanni asked.
"You all remember what the vice principal said? When we walked in he said he didn't expect the Japanese police to interview students… until tomorrow." Near said to the team.
"After the police interrogate them all, by the time they come back to their hideout they should either be relaxed enough to share crucial information or be cautioned enough to be on high alert. If it's the former then we confront and question them on their methods, however if it seems they're on their guard then we wait a bit." Near continued.
"For now however, I say we review the footage and find out who we just saw in this video. Gevanni if you'd please" Near said as he handed Gevanni the laptop.
Gevanni went and got the laptop and hooked it up to the hotel's flat screen television so everyone could get a bigger and better view.
The team picked up the Shujin Academy roster and went to work to find out who was who.
After just 15 minutes, Lidner was first to speak up "I've got a match on two of them" she said pointing to the paused surveillance screen.
"The girl with the blonde hair is second year Ann Takamaki and the boy with blonde hair is Ryuji Sakamoto."
Near continued to look at the school roster "Interesting, now we know three of their identities." he said calmly.
After about twenty more minutes of page flipping, Near smiled and pointed towards the screen. "I've found two more of their identities as well. The girl with short dark hair is class president Makoto Niijima… Interestingly enough she's Prosecutor Sae Niijimas younger sister. The same prosecutor who we met yesterday at the police station." Near stared at her on the screen. "Based on her being on the team we can assume that they have access to police information. However, the most peculiar one is this girl. Do you all recognize her?" Near said as he pointed to the girl with light auburn hair.
Everyone looked at her trying to figure out exactly who this girl was.
Lidner looked towards Near. "She looks familiar, but I admit after going through the school's roster all night her name escapes me." Lidner continued, "What's so special about her?"
"This is Haru Okumura, daughter of Kunikazu Okumura. The same man who the phantom thieves supposedly killed." Near said as he showed a picture of her from the school roster to the rest of the team. Near turned to see everyone's reaction to this update.
Everyone looked in shock at the picture to process the information Near had just told them.
Near continued.
"Honestly I'm still not one hundred percent sure the thieves didn't kill Okumura, however Haru being on the team does help support my theory that they didn't. I highly doubt she would want to kill her own father. Now we just have to find out who these last two members are." Near said as he looked back at the screen and flipped through the school roster more.
Hours passed and no one found anything. "Near I dont think those two students attend Shujin, I've been looking front and back in the school roster and they aren't there." Rester said.
"I thought the same thing, we should look for other possible locations." Lidner said.
Near stared at the surveillance screen in thought, after minutes of silence he spoke up.
"Does everyone remember what homeroom teacher Kawakami said about the student Ryuji Sakamoto?"
Lidner spoke up "Yes, she said he and Kamoshida got into a fight a while back."
Near dropped the school roster and looked towards the surveillance screen. "Exactly, so he was a victim and had a motive to want Kamoshida's heart changed. Based on that I think we can make one of two assumptions. Possibly both. Assumption one is that the phantom thieves target changes of hearts in people based on who they've interacted with personally. Assumption two is that for each change of heart they perform, they recruit a member who was a victim of one of the hearts they changed."
Gevanni fired back. "That may be true Near but we've only had 4 changes of hearts. And I count 7 members."
"That is true Gevanni, however let's look at it this way. Kamoshida victimized many people at Shujin Academy, so for their first change of heart they most likely started with more than just two members. Let's try and find out who that other person or persons was." Near said as he stared at the screen. He continued.
"We know the obvious two to start the phantom thieves are Ren Amamiya and Ryuji Sakamato, they were late their first day so we can assume Ryuji told Ren about Kamoshida. Whether or not Ren or Ryuji had the power to change hearts at the time is unknown. Now we have to find out who else in this recording was a victim of Kamoshida, if anyone else at all."
Rester began typing away in the police database to view Kamoshida's confession to match names with who they already had identified.
"Near I've got a list of all the people he confessed to abusing. I've got a match with the students Ren Amamiya, Ryuji Sakamoto, and Ann Takamaki, all of whom are also in the surveillance recording." Rester said successfully looking at the screen.
"Wonderful job Rester, we now have what seem to be our founding members. Based on that pattern their next target was Madarame, so we see who in the group has a connection with that target." Near said as he calmly stared at the screen in deep thought..
"If I'm correct, Madarame was found to be abusing his pupils, correct? I think we can make this easy and just look up his pupils, if we're correct in our theory that the phantom thieves are recruiting victims while changing hearts then that pupil should also be in this video." Near said to the team.
Rester once again typed away into the police's database to find out who Madarame confessed to abusing and came up with many results.
"I've got a lot of hits, I'll just take a look at his most recent pupils and see if I find a match."
As Rester narrowed the results for Madarame's most recent pupils and he looked through them, the very top result caught Gevanni's eye first.
"Rester stop scrolling I think I found a match. At the very top. That matches the boy in the recording. It says his name is Yusuke Kitagawa, he was the last pupil of Madarame before his arrest." Gevanni said to the team.
"Good work, we've got another one down. Now if my memory serves correctly, the next change of heart was for the mafia boss Junya Kaneshiro, correct?" Near said calmly.
Rester nodded "That's true, I already began looking him up. However he confessed to too many Shujin victims for us to filter through. Finding out which of them was the recruited victim will be a challenge."
Near stared at the floor in thought, then suddenly spoke up.
"No need, Gevanni. I'm fairly certain that the victim of Kaneshiro and the next phantom thief member to join was Makoto Niijima." Near calmly said.
"What makes you so sure?" Lidner asked, wondering how Near would explain how he came to this seemingly random conclusion.
"Simple, I eliminated the other two members and she was the only one left." Near said, pointing to Makoto on the screen.
"If our theory is correct then each member joined during a change of heart. We've already figured out when four members joined and we can safely eliminate Haru Okumura since she most likely joined during Okumura's change of heart. So that leaves two other members." Near said looking at the unidentified orange haired girl with glasses.
"I'm fairly certain it isn't this girl for one simple reason." Near said, pointing to her and showing the rest of the team. "Do you all notice anything strange about her?" Near said as he picked up the remote to zoom in on her.
Everyone stared at her on the screen in complete silence. "I'm guessing you all dont notice it, so I'll point it out." Near said getting up to point to the television screen. "Do you all notice anything about her posture? How about how her skin is noticeably lighter? It's almost as if she hasn't gotten any sunlight in a while. I admit I can relate so I may have noticed the signs earlier. To conclude I don't think she was a victim of Kaneshiro at all. I believe she was a shut-in until recently. After all it's pretty hard to get blackmailed by the mafia when you never leave your house.``
Lidner replied "Now that you point it out she does mimic some of your tendencies. But if she's a shut-in, whose heart did they change for her to join the group?"
"That's a wonderful question, Lidner. I believe they changed her heart. Now our only question is to find out who she is."
Gevanni replied "If she's a shut-in, how did she get in contact with the thieves before she was a member?"
Near pointed to the screen "I have three theories for that. Theory number one is that she must be very close to the Thieves headquarters in order to communicate with them. Theory number two is that the group became aware of her and decided to help her on their own. And my final theory is that she somehow figured out who the thieves were and asked them to change her heart herself. I believe theories one and three are most likely."
"So if she's nearby where exactly should we start looking?" Rester said, looking at Near.
"Well as a fellow shut-in I know I wouldn't normally frequent a noisy place like a cafe unless I'm very close to it or it belongs to someone important to me. I also find it odd how Ren Amamiya is sleeping in an attic and not in the home of his caretaker. Rester, would you be so kind as to look up the owner of Leblanc Cafe?" Near said.
"You've got it" Rester said while he looked up the information for Leblanc Cafe.
"It seems it's owned by a man named Sojiro Sakura." Rester said, showing Near.
Gevanni spoke up and said, "That's the man who served me coffee today."
"Good work Commander Rester, now if you could just look up his residence and all the house members inside."
Rester typed away and found out Sojiros address. "Near I've found a match! Besides himself he has one other occupant living with him named Futaba Sakura." He said as he kept looking to see if it truly was a match. "The same girl in the recording." he finished with a smile.
Rester continued to scan Futaba's file.
"It also seems like your shut in theory was right.. She hasn't attended any school since middle school."
Near stared at her picture and turned towards the team.
"With her identity uncovered and my previous assumption of Haru Okumura joining last, we now have all the members' identities confirmed. I say we look for a safe time to introduce ourselves to them. Get some good sleep everyone, tomorrow we find out the phantom thieves' methods to change a heart and their meaning of justice." Near said as he got into bed and stared at the ceiling. However, before drifting to sleep one long thought appeared in Nears mind..
Party A possessed the same power and obtained it before the Phantom Thieves. If the team and I had found the Thieves this easily, what if party A had already approached them and managed to infiltrate and join them? With no idea how a change of heart works I could be throwing away everyone's lives on a gamble that the phantom thieves are innocent. I have no other choice in the matter then… tomorrow I'll have to confront the Thieves in person. By myself. Let's see what your form of justice is then Phantom Thieves.