September 19

Sparx Factory

12:30 PM

Venus Rinko

My anxiety was still rattling around fiercely when we arrived at the factory, not that I should have expected anything aside from that. I tapped my foot impatiently against the ground once we were in the entryway of the building, biting at my lip with all the force I could muster without breaking skin. I would have preferred it if we could be back at the factory to talk with the assault victims about what they had seen, but I knew that wasn't going to be productive. We had already tried our best on that front, and it seemed as if the truth was just meant to be evasive for the rest of this case.

I was worried about Yuri. How could I not be? It wasn't often that you heard your baby sister had been cut over the eye by someone who murdered your business partner's mother. Granted, that was a highly specific situation that I had never expected myself to find in, but the fact that Yuri had such a close brush with a violent killer and could have died herself along the way... My protective older sibling instincts were kicking in, and I was desperate to be with her until she was able to get back out there. It was going to be a while before she managed to recover to such a degree, but I found myself yearning for it regardless.

I could tell that Mr. Morix was worked up about all of this too. He had a job to do when it came to showing that Ghastly wasn't the culprit behind this case, but that was much easier said than done to accomplish as long as everything about the crime was such a disaster. We still didn't know much about what happened aside from the fact that there were multiple people behind the crime, and it's not as if that was very descriptive. Sora was going to try and figure out what was going on when it came to her recognizing some of the people involved, but that was much easier said than done just like everything affiliated with this damn case. All Mr. Morix and I were going to be able to do until then was wait, and I hated it with everything I had.

I looked up to him carefully once we were settled in at the entrance of the factory. "So... Where are we going to start off by looking?" I asked carefully. I could only hope he had a plan since I knew that I was at a loss. I was too distracted by everything else to even try and come up with an idea for what we should be doing next, though I supposed that was to be expected. We just couldn't catch a break, could we?

Mr. Morix paused for a long moment before he sighed. "I suppose we should start off with the matter of the factory's security camera footage," he said after a moment of quiet. "After all, we don't know what's going on there. We know that there was footage recorded elsewhere in the factory on the day of the crime, but we can't say for sure what exactly was picked up... I think it would be best for us to try and figure out what was erased."

"If everything was erased aside from a small amount of footage, then I think we're going to have our work cut out for us as far as figuring out what really happened at the time of the crime," I pointed out. "There might be some traces left behind that could show that something happened, but I don't think we're going to be able to figure it out quite so easily."

"The good thing is that it seems like we've managed to show that Ghastly didn't do it," Mr. Morix said next. "The bad news is that we still don't know who was behind it. There was a group responsible for it all, but that's hard to figure out... We haven't seen anyone around here who could have been considered involved with the case. Does that mean the culprits decided to leave the area as soon as the chance came around?"

"If that's true, then we're going to have our work cut out for us," I sighed. "We know that there were multiple people behind the crime, but we don't know who they could possibly be... There has to be something around here that will point us in the right direction, but I guess we're just going to have to wait to see how that all unfolds."

Mr. Morix hummed at that, and a moment later, I realized why he didn't offer a true response to me. Detective Erikson was walking up to us, his hands shoved into his pockets. Every part of him was exhausted, and I gave him a small wave, hoping that it would do something to cheer up his dreary demeanor. I already knew it was a lost cause, but I might as well try something, right? I mean, we could have all used a little bit of cheering up. This case was awful no matter how you looked at it.

"Hey, Detective Erikson," I said carefully. "What are you doing here? I would have thought that you would be..." I trailed off, already knowing that I didn't want to finish that thought. He was here probably because he had no other choice but to be here. After all, his daughter was in the hospital, and it wasn't as if he would be able to do much at the hospital even if he wanted to. All of us wanted to be there, but we didn't have a choice. I didn't think we ever were given that option no matter how we looked at the case.

Detective Erikson shrugged, though I could tell that his posture was tense despite the attempt at nonchalance. "Ah, well... I just got back from there, as a matter of fact," he explained carefully. "Anton and Yuri are still asleep, though the people treating them expect that they'll wake up sometime in the next few days. The operation on Yuri's injury went well... Though they don't think she's ever going to be able to see out of her damaged eye again. The cut... It was..."

"Too deep," I finished for him. I had already expected to hear something like this, but that didn't make it any easier to hear. My foot started tapping against the floor below a moment later, and I shook my head to try and get my bearings together. "Yeah, I expected that... What else can you tell us? I get the feeling there's more to it than that."

"The investigation has hit... Well... A bit of a stalemate, to put it simply," Detective Erikson replied. "We've been trying our best to see what else is going on with the case, but we're coming up short no matter where we look... The one thing I can say is that there's something that went missing around the time of the crime, and we're going to have to be careful with how we look at it."

"What is it?" I asked eagerly, praying that this was the clue we had been looking for that would unravel this case.

"It was an artificial intelligence and virtual reality simulator," Detective Erikson answered. "That's something the factory has been working on a lot lately. There are two prototypes, and one of them went missing around the time of the crime. If I had to guess, I would say that was the motive for the murder when it comes to our mystery group. We don't have any clues as to who they could possibly be or why they wanted the simulator, but I'm willing to bet that they heard about it somehow and decided it piqued their interest."

"We've heard a bit about that simulator already," Mr. Morix frowned. "It was made to be a therapy program that would help people who had suffered from significant psychological trauma. I'm not sure how it was supposed to be used beyond that, but the plan was to do at least a little something to help people get better after they suffered from a notable strain in their lives. I don't know what the culprits could have wanted with it under that description, but..."

"I suppose they may have not been meaning to use it for that," I murmured. "After all, we're dealing with murderers who had no qualms at all when it came to attacking innocent people. I think it's safe to assume that they wanted the virtual reality program for some other reasons... We'll figure it out eventually, I'm sure. I don't know how we're going to do that, but we have to put the pieces together somehow, right?"

"It's got to make sense one way or another," Detective Erikson agreed. "I can't say how the picture is supposed to come together in full, but... The culprits did a lot at the time of the crime. They wanted that simulator for some reason, and they were willing to go to any lengths necessary to get their hands on it. And now..."

"It seems like they've completely disappeared," Mr. Morix finished for him. "I don't know where we would start when it comes to searching for them though. If the culprits really did vanish that way, then... How are we supposed to figure out where they disappeared to? We have to find the truth somehow, but if there's no evidence..."

"We're talking with Prosecutor Lin to see if we can work out where she could have seen the culprits before now," Detective Erikson assured us. "I can't say that it's going too well so far, but we're at least putting in the effort. Hopefully, it'll pay off sooner rather than later so that we can start to track down potential suspects. She's still somewhat disoriented from the attack, so it's probably going to take longer than we would have liked. Then again, I suppose we're already grasping at straws as it is, so what's a bit more desperation to put on the top of the pile?"

"Pardon me for sounding somewhat depressing by saying this, but... It bothers me that we're in this situation at all," I admitted softly. "I know it sounds ridiculous, but I'm scared that we're not going to be able to find them. How are we supposed to track the culprits down if we don't have any leads? For all we know, they could already be gone, off trying to cover their tracks from afar. After all, we need evidence in order to corner the one who did this, but we're coming up short no matter where we try to look. I think that we've got our work cut out for us, and I have no idea if we're going to be able to actually pull it off."

"We can't think like that," Mr. Morix told me. "There has to be someone out there who can tell us what's going on, and if we have to put the pieces together on our own, then so be it. I don't mind what has to be done in order for us to pull all of this off. Let's just do what we can to try and uncover the truth for the time being. The best step right now is to try and find out what happened when it comes to the erased video footage. There has to be something that can point us to the truth from there, so let's try to track down a few details there."

I nodded as I looked over to Detective Erikson. "We heard that the only video footage from the time of the crime was of Ghastly walking around the factory. Well, if we can show that the footage was deleted or find some other footage that would show clear signs of interference, then maybe we would be able to track down the culprit."

"We already know that the footage was tampered with and deleted," Mr. Morix pointed out. "Prosecutor Burke was more than clear about that when the trial first began. I think that we're going to have to use that to push forward and find our next bit of momentum to see who could have caused the footage to be deleted."

"The person who did it must have had some kind of skills with technology," I began to say. "It's not exactly a great starting point, but it's got to count for something? Given the fact that all we know right now is that there were five culprits who looked at least somewhat familiar to Sora, that's a good place to kick off from... I hope."

"At least one of them knew how to tamper with technology to erase them from the crime scene entirely," Detective Erikson agreed with a small nod. "Others must have figured out more about this experimental piece of technology as well and decided they wanted to get their hands on it. I don't know any details about that, but I believe we could potentially benefit from using the other prototype to try and see if we can find anything that might be able to help us."

"Then let's start off by looking in the security room," I announced. I paused for a moment as I brought one hand up to cradle at my chin. "Is there a security room around here? I don't know, but I feel like you know what I'm talking about. The room where we can look at the camera footage. That's where we should be going."

Detective Erikson nodded. "In that case, allow me to lead you there. We can look at things there and keep talking on the way," he suggested. I nodded before following him, Mr. Morix hot on my heels. It was only after we started walking once again that Detective Erikson continued to speak. "I don't know where exactly we're going to find clues about the culprit either. Our investigation has hit more than a few snags. Each time we think we may have found something, it gets erased. There are no clues left behind at all. The only evidence we have is of the assault victims getting hurt and the testimony they were able to share from their limited memories after the culprits attacked them."

Mr. Morix flinched at that, and I could already tell I wasn't going to like whatever he was going to say next. "You know... It bothers me to think about this, but... I wonder why the assault victims are still alive at all," he said softly. "I know it sounds ridiculous, but... The culprits had every power to completely destroy everyone who was in the room at the time. Instead, they only killed one person and just attacked the others. It seems like an odd choice. Don't get me wrong; I'm relieved that they didn't do anything worse than what happened in that room as it is, but... It still worries and confuses me."

I sighed at that, grabbing at my arm nervously. "I've been thinking about it too," I admitted carefully. "I don't know why it would happen that way. The culprits must have had a reason for making a choice like that, but I don't know what the logic could have been. Maybe they were trying to send a message or something, but... I feel like that still doesn't really say everything that we need to know about this situation. They must have had some other motive for making sure everything turned out the way it did, and I think that's one of the most nerve-wracking parts of this whole case."

"I wish I had a way to explain that, but I'm afraid that we've come up short in our investigations as to their motive as well," Detective Erikson frowned. "I agree that all of this must have happened for reasons that we didn't anticipate, but we don't know any details beyond that quite yet. I suppose only time is going to be able to tell what their true intentions were."

"Assuming we're even able to find them and make them confess to what happened to begin with," I muttered with a shake of my head. It felt like there was still a lot that we were missing out on, and it was so beyond frustrating that I didn't even have words to articulate my anger over all of this. I wanted to know who did this so that I could make sure that they never did anything like this again. I liked to think of myself as a relatively nonviolent person, but people like this... They were testing my patience, and it was already getting under my skin more than I could ever describe.

"Let's focus on trying to figure out what happened at the time of the crime for the moment," Detective Erikson said, and I could tell that he was trying to change the subject because he didn't want to confront the fact that it was fully possible for us to not wind up with the truth at our fingertips. He knew that we were in a dangerous position but didn't know how he was supposed to confront it. After all, he was just as desperate to understand what was happening as I was. His daughter was one of the people who had gotten hurt at the time of the crime, and even if Mukuro had woken up and was feeling better, it was still enough to get anybody defensive.

We arrived outside the security room soon afterwards, and Detective Erikson pushed the door open. "I don't know if we're going to be able to count on finding anything here," he admitted. "We've already done a thorough search of the area but haven't managed to track down anything that could be considered out of the ordinary. We're going to have to keep looking and see if perhaps the culprits left anything behind on accident, but for now, we're kind of at a loss."

"It seems like we usually are," I whispered to myself. I knew that it wasn't true, but given the bad mood I was in, I thought I deserved to at least be a little snarky. I tapped my foot against the ground as we walked inside, my anxiety continuing to boil and bubble endlessly. I wanted all of this to be solved as soon as possible, but the universe hated me as usual, so I guessed we were just going to have to wait.

The security room was much larger than I expected. It was made of the same dull gray metal as the rest of the building, though I suppose that much shouldn't have been surprising. There were a few screens stacked against one wall on top of a simple desk that had a swivel chair pulled up in front of it. The buzz of the computer consoles was enough to make me wince, and that was before you even factored in the constant hiss of the screens that lined the room. All of their displays had been overwhelmed by the pattern of static, and I absolutely hated it.

"Why are all of the screens looking like that?" Mr. Morix questioned as he turned his attention to Detective Erikson.

"The cameras were tampered with at the time of the crime, and it seems like that made it hard for them to receive any video feed," Detective Erikson explained. "I don't know how we're going to fix it, but we've had a few people working on it. As you can see, they haven't been able to make all that much progress."

My eyes fell on a single screen at the center of the cluster, and I glared at it with everything I had. The screen was a dull blue color, though I supposed that was a step above the constant static that the others were giving off. "Is that one working?" I asked.

Detective Erikson nodded. "That's the camera that we just so happened to catch the defendant on," he replied. "That was the camera that showed him walking through the factory with the victim... Well, not the murder victim, as we now understand."

"I suppose it would be hard to see for sure who the culprit was on cameras like these," I commented. "It's not like any of these screens are that good when it comes to quality. In fact, I don't think any of them are great quality."

"Not exactly... But it was enough for us to figure out what happened when the defendant started walking through the factory," Detective Erikson pointed out. "It took a while for us to figure out that he wasn't carrying the murder victim, but it does make sense. The cameras aren't the best out there, but at least they were passable to help us uncover what really happened."

"I remember hearing from my mother that the cameras were due for an upgrade at some point in the near future," Mr. Morix commented. "I suppose that's not all that surprising. The video footage doesn't seem like it would be the best given the combination of the shaky camera quality and the screens not having the best processing power... I guess it all just came together in a perfect way to make it seem like Ghastly did it."

"At least we can say for sure now that he wasn't the one who killed the victim," I pointed out with a loose shrug. "The victims of the assaults all know for sure that the culprits weren't involved with him, so that just leaves us to figure out who exactly did it all... If only it was going to be that easy."

"I was at the hospital earlier like I told you before, and I talked to Chrysalis and Mukuro," Detective Erikson told us. "Chrysalis still doesn't remember all that much about what happened when everything started to fall apart... But it was strange. As we were questioning her, we were around the other man who's been looking after her lately."

"Pieter," Mr. Morix said simply. "He's... Let's just say that he plays a complicated role in all of this." His gaze was stormy and tempestuous as he looked down at the floor below. He wanted to learn more about what was happening with this mysterious Mr. Fury character too, it seemed. Given the fact that Mr. Fury was claiming to be his brother and the one his mother had wanted him to meet, I couldn't blame Mr. Morix for being curious. I just wished that there was more I could do to help him figure out everything that was happening, though I supposed the case at hand was making it much harder than we would have liked to uncover the truth.

"I figured as much," Detective Erikson murmured with a shake of his head. "Either way, he seemed to be acting strangely... He claims to not know anything about the case, but as far as I can tell, he's got a lot more on his mind than he's willing to let on. I think he knows what's going on here, though I can't conclude that with evidence quite yet. He's not said anything that could imply that he knows what's going on, but it's easy enough to figure out when you watch the way he carries himself."

"Do you think he's involved with all of this?" Mr. Morix asked carefully, clearly trying to feel out the situation before he was presented with a specific answer. "Pieter, I mean... Do you believe that he could be affiliated with the culprits somehow?"

"I have no evidence to say that," Detective Erikson told him. "I don't think there is any proof that would say something like that, truth be told, but... I think that he does have something in mind that might shed some light on this case. I asked him about it multiple times, but he refused to ever provide any information that might be able to help us with figuring out what happened. I ultimately left it be for the time being since I figured that if anyone was going to be able to get him to open up, it would be your sister."

"You can say that," I snorted with a shake of my head. "Chrysalis knows how to get people to open up whether they want to or not. I think it's her glare; most people we know could never hope to be immune to her whenever she starts staring at people like that."

"That sounds just like her," Mr. Morix agreed with a shake of his head. "I hope she is able to get him to open up... He hardly seemed receptive when I was talking to him yesterday. Then again, I suppose he didn't want to talk to anybody aside from us. I don't know why he would be so attached to her as long as he was supposed to meet with everyone else involved with this case too, but I guess that's something we're just going to have to figure out on our own."

"Yeah," I murmured with a small nod. Truth be told, I was concerned about the fact that this Mr. Fury character was so interested with Chrysalis. Perhaps it was my older sister instincts, but I knew that there was more to it than I could have ever expected. I had no idea how we were going to get him to open up about it, of course, but it was something to think about.

"Maybe that's our cue when it comes to the next place we should be searching," Mr. Morix pointed out. "If you think that Pieter really could be the one who could shine a light on this case and what really happened at the time of the murder, then I believe it would be a fine idea for us to go back to the hospital and see if there's anything we can press out of him."

"That wouldn't be an awful idea," Detective Erikson agreed. "I can't say how well it's going to work out for you, but I'm willing to assume that you're going to have more luck with it than I did. After all, he seems somewhat slow to trust. I can't say why he took such a shine to your sister, but that has to mean something significant. It could be the key to getting him to open up about what really happened."

I nodded my agreement in Mr. Morix's direction. "Maybe we should go and do that... But I think I have another idea of something we should be taking care of first."

"What would that be?" Mr. Morix questioned, seemingly shocked at the fact that I was proposing something else in the first place.

"Let's look at the scene of the crime while we're here," I replied. "We weren't able to do that yesterday, and I think we should give it a quick scan before we head out. I mean, we don't have any other ideas when it comes to places we should be looking around, so we might as well do something productive while we're here. Besides, I don't want to leave the hospital after we get there. I don't want to just ditch Yuri if it can be avoided, even if she hasn't woken up yet. Once we get there, I'm going to want to stay, so we might as well take care of our other business first."

"That sounds like a good idea," Mr. Morix murmured. He allowed his eyes to slip shut for a long moment as he shook his head. "I don't know if I'm going to be ready to go in there, truth be told, but I guess we really don't have much of a choice in the matter... There's too much that we have to learn about, and we can't afford to waste any more time than absolutely necessary."

"If it makes you feel any better, almost everything in that room has been cleared away now," Detective Erikson told us. "The body of the victim... The forensics team took her away earlier today to make sure that they were able to conduct a full examination. The assault victims are obviously gone as well, so if it counts for anything, you're going to be looking around at an empty room."

"That's much better than the alternative," Mr. Morix sighed. He forced his eyes open once again as he glanced in the direction of the door. "Still, I guess we should get going now... We're not going to be able to accomplish anything as long as we're just standing around in here."

I nodded my agreement before turning to Detective Erikson with a strained smile pressed on my features. "Thank you again for talking to us, Detective Erikson. It really does mean a lot," I told him.

Detective Erikson shook his head. "It's nothing you need to thank me for," he assured me. "I'm counting on the two of you to find the truth behind what happened... If anybody is going to be able to do it, then it's going to be you two. I'm looking forward to hearing from you again." He waved as we walked out of the room, and I walked around the corner, only stopping the movement of my arm once I was sure that he was out of view.

I glanced over to Mr. Morix and saw that he was still staring sadly at the ground below. I couldn't blame him in the slightest, but I didn't know how to handle it with words. There was nothing I could say to make any of this better, so I simply let my hand come up to rest on his arm. Mr. Morix's posture relaxed ever so slightly at the gesture, and we remained still as could be for a long handful of moments in the hallway.

When we started walking once again, I no longer had anything to say. I had already told him everything I could.

Talking to people is hard and annoying

-Digital