Disclaimer: I don't own Persona or Kamen Rider

Kamen Rider W: Phantom Thief Investigations

Case 1: Investigating the S/The 3-year crime spree

June 4 201X

Fuuto, Japan

The wind was blowing gently as a Honda CBR1000RR drives through the streets. It caught the eyes of a few pedestrians as it was black in the front and green in the back. The bike's rider wore a black suit, white shirt, red tie, and a white helmet with a red stripe. The bike weaved through traffic till it turned a corner and came to a stop next to where half a dozen police cars were parked.

The rider took off the helmet revealing a young man with brown hair. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a black fedora and placed it on his head. This man was Shotaro Hidari, self-proclaimed 'hard-boiled' detective. "Lot of police officers for one body." Shotaro said as he walked towards the officers.

"About time you got here Shotaro." A voice said and Shotaro turned to see police detectives Jinno and Makura walking towards him.

"Ah Jin, nice of you to officially invite me though I must say this is a lot of manpower for one body. Now that I notice, they're just standing around not investigating the crime scene." Shotaro said as he looked around at all the cops.

"First of all, we don't need a punk like you telling us cops how to do our jobs! And second..." Makura started to say before...

"Makura, go patrol the perimeter now." Jinno said in a voice that was not his usual laid-back voice. Both Makura and Shotaro looked shocked before Makura walked off to patrol. "Sorry you had to see that. You should go see Superintendent Terui." Jinno said pointing towards a young man in red.

As Shotaro walked towards Terui he looked up and waved him over. "Oi Hidari, first time one of these has appeared in our town." Terui said as he and several officers stood around a sheet covered body. "I heard about these just as I graduated from the academy. They called it a mental shutdown." Terui continued as he lifted the sheet off the body.

"Mental shutdown?" Shotaro asked as he noticed the man's eyes were rolled to the back of his head as well as a black substance coming from the mouth. The man had dark brown hair and was wearing a suit. "How does that happen? Also, first one to appear in Fuuto...how long have these been going on?" Shotaro asked.

"We're not sure how it happens but apparently the mind just shuts down. More often than not the person dies. As for long it's been going on...at least 2 to 3 years. They've mostly happened around Tokyo but from what I heard they have happened in smaller cities like Fuuto." Terui said as he replaced the sheet on top of the corpse.

"2 to 3 YEARS! How the hell has the public not noticed?" Shotaro almost yelled.

"Government covers them up. I'm sure you noticed no one's actually doing any actual police work here." Terui said.

"I noticed that. What is going on? Jin being cross with Makky and you're actually answering questions. That's not normal." Shotaro said.

"When the higher-ups realized this was a mental shutdown, they made a call to The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. They told us not to investigate and that they were sending their own detectives as well as their own coroner to get the body. I want you to investigate in our place in case it turns to be a dopant that's causing these shutdowns. That's why I had Jinno call you here. " Terui told Shotaro.

Shotaro bent down, lifted the sheet off the victim and spoke. "First things first, I need to know who our victim is and why he is here. He looks kinda familiar."

"He should...that's Chojiro Watanabe as in Councilman Chojiro Watanabe. As for why he's here...you're gonna have to find out. But for now, you'd better go. The detectives from Tokyo are almost here and if they see you..." Terui said.

"We'll all be in trouble. Come by the office when you can. Hopefully I'll have something of an idea of what happened." Shotaro said before he turned around and walked towards his bike before putting on his helmet, getting on the bike, and drive away. A few miles away from the crime scene Shotaro stopped the bike and pulled out his phone and dialed the office.

"Narumi Detective Agency." a girl's voice answered.

"Hey Chief..." Shotaro started to say before

"Don't 'Hey Chief' me, where are you? What if a client came in?" the girl screeched.

"Terui wanted to talk to me about a case. But I rather not talk about it on the phone Akiko. I only called to ask if you remembered where we put Pops' old files." Shotaro said as he held the phone away from his ear.

"My father's old files, yeah why? What's my father files got to do with Ryu?" Akiko asked.

"I can't explain over the phone. Can you get some files out so I can look at them?" Shotaro asked.

"Which ones? You know how many files there are!" Akiko asked

"His most recent file, then go back a year and grabbed every file in between those two dates. Convince Philip to help, this case might pique his interest." Shotaro said as he hung up the phone and rode his bike back to the office.

When Shotaro got back to the office he walked inside and saw Akiko and Philip standing around his desk that is covered in boxes.

"You're back. Now what is so important you couldn't say over the phone." Akiko said.

"Also, why you want to look through some of Sokichi Narumi's old files?" Philip asked

Shotaro held his hands up and began to explain what Terui wanted to speak to him about.

While Philip placed his right hand on his chin in a classic thinking pose, Akiko had a gob smacked look on her face.

"3 YEARS?! I didn't hear about this!" Akiko shouted.

"Fascinating, but why the need to look through some old files? If Sokichi Narumi had run into whoever is doing this, wouldn't he had stopped him? Philip asked

"True but Pops usually kept his ear to the ground when it came to unusual cases. Especially cases that were not centered around Fuuto just in case something similar happened in Fuuto." Shotaro said as he walked towards his desk and sat down in his chair. "In fact, if I remember correctly...he rarely left Fuuto."

"So, you think my father kept track of these 'mental shutdowns'?" Akiko asked

"That's what I think but I won't know till I go through his files." Shotaro said as he grabbed a file and opened it to quickly read it before puting it down and grabbing another one.

This went on for several hours as Shotaro kept going through the files. The earliest ones didn't mention mental shutdowns however they did mention how seemingly normal people ended up doing insane things. Sokichi wrote that the public were calling these psychotic breakdowns. A few more files including one involving a suicide Shotaro finally got to when mental shutdowns started appearing as well as more psychotic breakdowns.

Finally, he got to the last file which was actually dated one week before Begins Night. As he read it Shotaro's eyes got wide and he shouted, "What the hell?!" which got the attention of both Philip and Akiko.

"What's with you?" Akiko asked.

""Something wrong Shotaro?" Philip asked.

Shotaro sighed and said "This last file is from before Begins Night..."

Suddenly the door was slammed opened and there stood Ryu Terui with an angry look on his face. He then slammed the door shut. At the same time a blue British Shorthair cat appeared from nowhere and leapt onto Philip's lap.

"Oi Terui, married to the chief or not...you wreck the door or wall and you're paying for the repairs." Shotaro said as he stood up.

"And you spooked Mick." Philip said.

'I doubt that.' Terui thought as he sat on the couch in the office.

"What's wrong Ryu?" Akiko asked as she sat next to her husband.

Ryu turned to Shotaro and said, "Those Tokyo police officers showed up and not 2 minutes into the coroner's examination declared Watanabe died from a heart attack in other words...natural causes."

"I haven't seen many heart attacks, but I doubt they looked like that." Shotaro said as he sat back down.

"I told the lead detective they sent that it looked like a mental shutdown. You know what he said to me? 'What's a punk kid from the sticks know about mental shutdowns?' I told him a lot more than what he knew apparently. The fool then grabbed my jacket and threatened to have me demoted to crossing guard. He asked me if I understood what he was saying." Ryu said while Akiko hugged his arm.

"Let me guess...you removed his hand from your jacket and told him not to ask you any questions." Shotaro said with a smirk.

Ryu smirked right back and continued his story "As I was doing this his partner pulls out his gun and tells me to let him go. A few of our officers including Makura pulled out their guns and told him to drop it. Thankfully Jinno managed to diffuse the situation and asked as politely as he could for the Tokyo police officers to leave Fuuto. And they as were going to leave that one detective said, 'my boss is gonna say something to your boss about your smart mouth."

"Is that why you were in a bad mood?" Akiko asked

"I got called in to the chief's office and basically told that while I'm not fired or even suspended, The Paranormal Crime Division is not allowed to investigate Watanabe's death." Ryu said.

"Even if this turns out to be a memory crime?" Shotaro asked.

"Exactly. Of course, he knows about my relationship with this agency, and he said, 'you should tell your wife and her private detective colleagues that they shouldn't look into this case...at least not without being discreet or not doing anything stupid." Ryu said.

"Well, what does he want us to do be discreet or not do something stupid? Cause if we're talking about Shotaro's half-boiled..." Philip started to say.

"HARDBOILED! It's hardboiled partner and I am far more discreet than you and I remember you've done some stupid things yourself. The Heaven's Tornado incident comes to mind first of all." Shotaro said as he got out of his chair and walked to where Philip was sitting.

"Do I want to know?" Ryu asked Akiko.

"I'll tell you later...it involves breakdancing, a cockroach dopant and a few other things." Akiko replied as she got up and smacked both of them with a green slipper that had the words 'No fighting' written in gold.

Shotaro rubbed his head and said, "Either way we can't figure it out till we learn more about what happened to Watanabe."

Just then the phone rang, and Akiko went to pick it up. "Narumi Detective Agency, just a minute...It's Jinno." Akiko said handing the phone to Shotaro.

Shotaro grabbed the phone and spoke "Ah Jin, Terui told us what happened."

"Yeah, big city cops think they can push us around. Anyway, me and Makura went to inform his immediate family and we were able get information on where he's been and where he was going today. From what we found out was that for the past week he and his family were in Tokyo...Shibuya to be precise. They just came back yesterday. When they came home, he went to the phone and called someone to schedule a meeting for today. As for who he called, turns out it's a former client of yours." Jin said over the phone.

"A former client who? Huh? Eehhhhhhhhh!?" Shotaro shouted as he stood up shocking everyone in the office.

End of Case 1 Part 1

What was written in the file Shotaro had?

Who was Watanabe going to meet?

When will I introduce the Phantom Thieves?

Answers to these and other questions in the next chapter.