The day continued as normal, even with Shi taking the day off. Adachi walked past the morgue, unused to seeing it empty. He sighed and pulled out his phone, deciding to see how she was. It rang through but there was no response. He frowned as he hung up. Maybe it was just because of what happened but the fact she hadn't answered unnerved him. He walked through to the main room of the station, still looking at his phone. Dojima smacked him with a stack of papers.

"If you have enough time to look at your phone, then you can go over the witness statements from the kidnappings. We need to make sure we build a case strong enough to support itself. I don't want all of the crime scene teams hard work gathering evidence to go to waste." He said, dropping the stack of papers that he had used to attack Adachi onto the others desk.

"Dojima-san, you haven't heard off of Shi-chan today have you?" Adachi asked.

"Trying to find a reason to ditch work? She'll probably be resting. The rare days she does get off, she usually catches up on sleep or goes over old reports to keep her knowledge up to date." He replied. "Nanako will probably go see her when she finishes school for the day. But don't bother her." He added.

Adachi frowned and looked down at the statements. He began to work through them, looking over the reports to make sure they didn't miss anything. Every so often, he glanced down at his phone. There was no response to his earlier phone call. He looked up, frowning at this knowledge. Why hadn't she responded?

He eventually managed to sneak away, his earlier attempts rewarded by being punched in the head by Dojima. He headed towards Junes, half heartedly hoping that he would see Shi shopping. His hopes were dashed when he saw no sign of her. He sat in the food court, sipping his drink and looking at his phone. He tried her again, sighing when there wasn't a response again.

"Adachi-san." He looked up as someone called his name. He frowned as Yu walked towards him.

"Oh, it's you. What's up?" He asked.

"Adachi-san, you haven't seen Shi-san today have you?" Yu asked him.

"No, she has the day off and is resting. I haven't had the chance to talk to her today." He said. The group all looked at each other. They shared a look before looking back to him.

"So, no one has seen or heard from her all day?" Yosuke asked.

"You better not be thinking of going and bothering her. Shi-chan has a lot of work to do without worrying about you lot as well. Let her rest, she's earned it." He said firmly. Though he wouldn't admit to it, he was also growing slightly concerned at the lack of contact. He turned and began to head back to the station. "Just leave this to the police." He added before leaving.

When he arrived back at the station, he saw the chief talking to Dojima. Both looked up at him as he walked in. Neither of them seemed very happy. He braced himself for a verbal assault that would be, most likely, followed by physical abuse from Dojima once the chief was gone. He walked towards them.

"Ah, Detective Adachi. You haven't managed to contact Shi-chan today have you?" The chief asked. Adachi shook his head.

"Has...no one being able to speak to her today?" He asked.

"Well, no one has been to her house yet, but no one has been able to get in contact with her. I want you and Dojima-san to go to her house, see if she's there." The chief said. Adachi nodded and turned to Dojima who was about to nod when his phone rang. He looked at it.

"It's Nanako. Excuse me for a minute." He said before answering. "Yeah Nanako? What? What do you mean her door is open? Right, stay outside, don't go in. I'll be there in five minutes." He said before hanging up. "Nanako has just been to Shi's house. She said her door is open." He said.

"What?" Adachi aske, surprise clear on his face.

"Now, let's not jump to conclusions. She may be visiting a neighbour." The chief said.

"Nanako said she looked inside the entrance. It was a mess. Like someone had struggled." Dojima said. He turned and began to head towards the door with Adachi. "We'll go look. If it is what we suspect, we'll call crime scene." He said. The chief nodded and let them go.

Dojima drove as fast as he could to get to Shi's house. Nanako stood by the gate, a small crowd starting to gather. Dojima moved towards Nanako. "Are you OK?" He asked her as Adachi moved past them towards the door. It was open, revealing the hallway. The table was on its side, items strewn around the floor.

"Shi-chan?" He called out softly. No response came back. He moved forward, about to step inside. He could see a mark on the wall near the table in her hall.

"Adachi, don't go in there! You could contaminate it!" Dojima yelled. Adachi froze and stepped back, away from the door. Immediately, Dojima was on his phone, calling for crime scene and uniformed officers. Adachi shook himself and started to get statements from neighbours. As crime scene processed her home, he heard people murmuring.

"I told you she had something to do with it. Why else would she not reveal that information to us?" A housewife said.

"Well, look at who her parents were. The apple never falls far from the tree. It must be genetic." Another gossip replied. "And innocent people don't run away."

"That's enough!" He snapped. The two of them looked at him. "Tawakemono-sensei has done nothing but helped people in this town. She has been driving herself to exhaustion to solve this but you lot can't accept that can you?!"

"Adachi! That's enough." Dojima yelled. Adachi turned, about to respond. But one look at Dojima's face told him to drop it. He turned and walked away from the two gossiping women. As he moved away from the scene, Dojima stopped him. "I don't know what the hell that was all about, but we don't snap like that at the public. They are one of the only sources of evidence we have at the moment. The only way of getting a timeline." He said. Adachi sighed.

"Uncle Dojima." A voice called. The two looked up as Yu ran over to them. "I came as soon as I got the message. You want me to take Nanako-chan back home." He said. Dojima nodded. "Do we know what happened?" Yu asked.

"Tawakemono-sensei has provided us with clues." A CSI said as he walked towards them. "She pulled her assailant inside, creating footprints for us to lift and made both her and her assailant collide with the table and the wall. We have some possible fibres." He added.

"That's good. Once we find Shi-chan, we can make sure her attempts weren't in vain." Dojima said. The CSI nodded before taking the evidence away. Yu nodded and took Nanako's hand.

"Come on, we'll head home." He said to her. She smiled and nodded before they headed off. Adachi watched them before looking back up at Shi's home. A cold feeling hit the pit of his stomach. Fear clenched him in icy cold claws. If they didn't find Shi soon, then it may result in her own autopsy.

Later that night, Yu sat, watching a blank TV. His clock ticked slowly to midnight. He didn't want to watch the midnight channel. None of them did. But they had to be sure that if Shi had been kidnapped, then had she been thrown into the TV. Midnight arrived, the clock chiming. As it did, the room was illuminated by the midnight channel activating. The image was a lot clearer. A circus background appeared, including a dark, creepy looking big top. A figure dressed as a ringleader appeared. It was Shi.

"Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen. Welcome to the greatest show you'll ever see. It's the circus we encounter everyday. The circus of life. And have we got a show for you tonight!" The Shi on the screen said. Yu watched the show, his eyes narrowed. The thing on screen wasn't Shi. It's voice was distorted. And it had a mask attached to one of its hips.

"We have everything you could want here. And not only that, we have a new act, yay!" The Shi on screen was overexcited and over reacting, nothing like the one he had seen talking to Dojima. "I can't believe it but we have a unique freak I am going to get to interact with. So don't miss out. Are you all ready? Because here we go!" The other Shi cried happily before running into the big top. The TV went blank after that. Immediately, Yu's phone rang.

"Did you see that?! I have never seen Tawakemono-sensei dress like that. And that mask..." Yosuke said.

"This proves Tawakemono-sensei was thrown into the TV. We need to rescue her." Yu said.

"Yeah, we'll go into the TV world tomorrow. We'll save Tawakemono-sensei. We'll meet at the food court before heading in." Yosuke replied before hanging up. Yu also hung up and looked back at the TV.

"Don't worry Tawakemono-sensei, we'll save you." He said.